This guy is the real deal.
You said that last time.
Yeah, and look how right I was.
“Transition” · Season 7
In this episode: Josh Lyman (6), Donna Moss (3), Sam Seaborn (2), Lou (1)
[Josh just offered Sam the job as Deputy Chief of Staff.]
I'm going to need time to think about this
Fine... You done yet?
Josh...
What's there to think about?
Well, for one thing, whether I want to end up looking like you.
When I said we needed to talk, I wasn't necessarily thinking about tonight. I'm kind of fried.
Who said anything about talking?
[Before he can answer, she kisses him.]
So last night was nice. Nice. It was really nice. On the nice scale it was way up there in terms of... you know, niceness.
Be still and listen to me. I don't know what this is. And you don't, either, which is perfectly fine and understandable. Whatever the buildup, it's all happened amid absurdly heightened emotional circumstances: the election, Leo's death. There's been... not a moment to so much as... take a breath, much less figure any of this out. And now this roller coaster's plunging into the transition, with its time-pressure demands and then the inauguration, and it's hit the ground running, and the first hundred days and, before you know it, the midterms and the new Congress, and then we're running again and four years becomes eight, and... we've never had the talk. And you can lose that look of panic in your eyes. We're not going to have it now; we don't ever have to have it. But there's a window. I'd say four weeks. If we can't get it together in that time to figure out what we want from each other, then clearly it's not worth the trouble. While last night was lovely, I've already called a cab. You should put on some coffee, and I'll see you at the office.
Not everyone's like you, so...
Dedicated?
Monomaniacal.
LLou
Rough day?
Nah, typical.
LLou
You love it, you live for it, you were born to do it, I'm the same way. Everybody tells me to get a life, although I don't know why... I find life to be terribly overrated. It's actually quite boring when it's not disappointing. Say what you will about what we do, but boring it is not.
I know that you can parlay the Santos win into a doubling of your fee.
LLou
Tripling, if it figures into your memoirs.
Nothing is going to top this. Everything else's going to be a letdown.
LLou
Letdowns that make me semi-rich, that's a tradeoff I'm willing to endure.
You don't care about money.
LLou
Who doesn't?
You!
LLou
Not as such.
As what?
LLou
Score-keeping. Quantitative evidence that I'm smarter than you. Not you.
Who?
LLou
Everybody else.
Come on board as communications director.
LLou
Thank you, but no.
Finish what you started.
LLou
I'm not interested in governing.
Campaigning's about promise; governing's about achievement. It's, it's tougher and a lot less romantic, but it's not boring. I already think you're smarter than everyone, that's why I want you down the hall. Come on, it's not like getting a life!
LLou
That's true, look at you.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's The West Wing pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.