Chris Amador quotes from The Americans

Chris Amador

They can cut your balls off, stuff them in your mouth, tie you to a radiator in a basement, and then call it a lateral move.

Chris Amador

You're gonna lose this war. You know that, right? You can torture me and you can kill me but we're gonna kick your motherland's marbled ass, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Chris Amador

So, were you, like, burning crosses and shit with those guys? Or like, "Heil Hitler"?

Stan Beeman

It was a little deeper than that.

She just walked away, tight out from under surveillance. How big was the team?

Stan Beeman

Six men.

And she just disappeared into thin air? Is she Doug Henning?

Stan Beeman

We debriefed the surveillance guys. They said it happened at a choke point, like she knew.

Goddamn it!

Stan Beeman

She slipped away from a full FBI surveillance detail. Sounds like a Directorate "S" Operative to me.

I got to call upstairs.

Chris Amador

Look, we all thought continuing surveillance was the best move. We all agree on that.

You worried about me, Amador? You think I'm out on a limb and someone's gonna saw it off?

Chris Amador

No, sir.

That's sweet. Really, I'm touched. But if this woman thinks that slipping one surveillance team gets her home to Mother Russia, she's as soft as you are.

Stan Beeman

We have her name and her face.

And we have the resources of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She has to be quiet to stay safe. We can make noise.

Stan Beeman

A counterintelligence artiste?

Chris Amador

Yeah, I'm like Picasso, only with a gun and not a brush. My work is my life, and my life is my art. I have no wife, no kids, no pets, no hobbies, no distractions—except for pussy. I got no attachments. I'm as unencumbered as bedbugs in a flophouse, and I like it. It works for me.

Stan Beeman

Vietnam turned you into a skirt chaser?

Chris Amador

I was straight as an arrow when I signed up. I was an altar boy till I was 17.

Stan Beeman

Really?

Chris Amador

Yeah. Then 'Nam changed things. You know, there was crazy shit over there. You never knew when your number was gonna be called. I learned two things. One, tempus fugit—"time flies". One way or the other, you snatch it, or it's gonna snatch you. There's no pause button. And, two, there are worse things than dying.

Stan Beeman

Like?

Chris Amador

Shame. Shame's not an option for me.