Dr. Morrison quotes from St. Elsewhere

Dr. Morrison

I'm trained as a doctor, not as a faith healer.

Dr. Ehrlich

My Aunt Charisse is in from Forestville, California.

Dr. Morrison

Wine country?

Dr. Ehrlich

What can I say, she's into grapes. She wants to take me out for an evening on the town. Anything I want to do. All I want to do is sleep. How do you ask your aunt to sleep with you?

Dr. Ehrlich

Anything else I can do for you out in the free world?

Dr. Morrison

Drop in on my wife. Tell her I'm alive and being held captive at St. Eligius.

Dr. Morrison

You'll die.

[softly] And what if you're wrong? How about that, hm?

Dr. Morrison

I'm not wrong.

Well, suppose you're not. If not... [sadly] ... No big loss.

Dr. Morrison

I guess I never had to be concerned with the big issues of race relations. I always dealt with people one on one. I mean, we're friends aren't we? [silence] Aren't we?

Dr. Chandler

Look, Jack, I'd like to say "Sure. No problem. We're friends. Everything's fine." But I can't. There's things you'll never understand because you're white. I'm not trying to pass judgment but there are things you'll never understand about your wife because she's a woman.

Dr. Morrison

Yeah, but she's still my wife and we're still friends.

Dr. Beale

Castody killed himself a couple of hours ago.

Dr. Morrison

What?!

Dr. Beale

He left a note.

Dr. Morrison

What did it say?

Dr. Beale

"I hope the next world is better than this."

Dr. Morrison

You said yourself it was a textbook case of leukemia.

We're treating a little boy here, not a textbook.

Dr. Morrison

Hi, Wayne.

Dr. Fiscus

Wanna bet how long it takes this three-year-old to pass a mood ring?

Dr. Morrison

Not a gambling man.

Dr. Fiscus

How about Peter? He's good at beating the odds.

Dr. White

[Morrison approaches White] Let's have a look at this skull series.

Dr. Morrison

The waters' view is clear.

Dr. White

You think Megan and Timothy have changed much?

Dr. Morrison

Probably. But they're still your kids.

Dr. White

I'm telling ya, I'm gonna put things back together with Myra.

Dr. Fiscus

Good. Then you can go up to the psych ward and tell Cathy Martin you're sorry you put her in a straight jacket.

Dr. White

Hey Fiscus, you shut up.

Dr. Fiscus

Jack, you haven't lived till you've seen Peter in action. I had the good fortune to catch his act once, and believe me, he's got a certain way with women. Unfortunately, it's a felony.

Dr. White

You know, you really oughta talk, Fiscus. There isn't a woman in this hospital you haven't hit on.

Dr. Fiscus

Took a lot of hard work, concentration, and a ski mask to get Peter where he is today. You know something for Myra's sake, I hope she's found another man.

Dr. Morrison

[Stepping in to break up the scuffle] Enough! That's enough, all right? That's enough, Peter!

Dr. Morrison

Why can't you leave him alone? Why can't everybody just leave him alone?

Dr. Fiscus

He's doing a con job on you, Jack, and I don't know why you just lie back and enjoy it.

Dr. Westphall

Shirley..

Nurse Daniels

[Distraught] I'm sorry Dr. Westphall. Just don't come near me.

Dr. Westphall

Don't do this please.

Nurse Daniels

I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble. I know it was wrong for me to kill Peter.

Dr. Westphall

Don't let that mistake take your life, too.

Nurse Daniels

Peter hurt a lot of people

Nurse Daniels

STOP! I want to talk to Jack.

Nurse Daniels

That's close enough. Hi, Jack. [sighs] You ever been up here before?

Nurse Daniels

Smell the ocean? And look. Look at this. You can see for miles. There's the Pru and the Hancock Tower, and across the Charles, there's Cambridge. God, this is so beautiful! Why didn't I ever come up here before? I'm glad Cathy's on the sixth floor. Have you seen her?

Nurse Daniels

I think she's getting better.

Dr. Morrison

Yeah.

Nurse Daniels

All that screaming and blood.

Dr. Morrison

Blood? What blood?

Nurse Daniels

Come on, Jack, you know what I'm talking about, in the ER. Blue-lipped junkies, 13-year-old pregnant girls, legs mangled under motorcycles. I know how special life is. I save lives, and I only took one... so far. You were his friend, Jack! Why didn't you do something?

Dr. Morrison

There was nothing I could do.

Nurse Daniels

You believed him! You believed Peter. Everything he did, you stuck with him, said he always got bad breaks. Well, that didn't give him the right! The world's full of bad breaks.

Dr. Morrison

You're my friend, Shirley. And all that means is I'm willing to share your pain.

Nurse Daniels

You're willing to share this? [Points gun at Morrison]

Dr. Westphall

Shirley, don't, please!

Dr. Morrison

What Peter did was wrong. What you did was wrong, too. And there's nothing that I can do about that. But I'm still here for you.

Nurse Daniels

You look tired.

Dr. Morrison

Yeah, I am. I've been on call for 48 hours.

Nurse Daniels

The hospital will kill ya.

Dr. Fiscus

I don't know what it is with you, Boomer. All your patients seem to be going south lately.

Dr. Morrison

Fiscus, why the hell you gotta make a smart remark about everything?

Dr. Chandler

Whoa, Jack, take it easy.

Dr. Morrison

Hey, hey, hey, why don't you shut up! Philip, I don't need you telling me what to do or how to treat my patients. Don't question my medical judgement. Okay? All right? I'm just as good a doctor as either of you.

Dr. Morrison

Dr. Westphall.

Dr. Westphall

Yeah.

Dr. Morrison

I wanted to be the one to tell you.

Dr. Westphall

Tell me what?

Dr. Morrison

Carrolton University Medical School used to be in Mexico.

Dr. Westphall

Jack, excuse me, I've been in surgery all day. Would you mind cluing me in on what you're talking about?

Dr. Morrison

Well, I didn't get accepted to a med school here in the States, so I took a job doing research while taking pharmaceutical training. Carrolton offered a two year program, but when I got there, I found that I could accelerate. So, since I had other training, I took the test.

Dr. Westphall

How long were you at this place?

Dr. Morrison

Six months.

Dr. Westphall

You got two years' credit in six months?

Dr. Morrison

Well, I had to take the test, and the boards, I had a background.

Dr. Westphall

Doesn't make you a doctor, Jack.

Dr. Morrison

Dr. Westphall, I didn't realize what...

Dr. Westphall

Would you excuse us a for a minute, please?

Dr. Westphall

Thank you.

Dr. Morrison

I didn't realize what I was doing was wrong.

Dr. Westphall

Jack, if it were practical to train a doctor in that amount of time, don't you think we'd do it? Why the hell didn't you tell me? You owe me that much at least, for fighting to keep you here for a second year.

Dr. Morrison

I wasn't... I was afraid. You're disappointed in me.

Dr. Westphall

Yes, I'm disappointed, what the hell do you think?

Dr. Morrison

Well, there must be some way to straighten this out, I mean something you can do.

Dr. Westphall

The mistakes you made here, the misdiagnoses, I believed it was because you were doing your best to function under tremendous personal pressure and now it seems all the errors you made were the result of a grossly inadequate medical education. If I'd had the power, I'd suspend you, you know that?

Dr. Morrison

Well, I'd like to continue with the educational part of my residency, but I'll take myself off cases.

Dr. Westphall

That's a damn good idea.