Jack Harkness quotes from Torchwood

Gwen

She's going out with a frozen soldier from 1918.

Jack

Nobody's perfect.

Jack

This time tomorrow he'll be back in 1918.

Ianto

In his own time. [pause] Would you go back to yours, if you could?

Jack

Why? Would you miss me?

Ianto

Yep.

Jack

I left home a long time ago, I don't know where I really belong. Maybe that doesn't matter anymore.

Ianto

[perches on the edge of Jack's desk] I know you get lonely.

Jack

Going home wouldn't fix that. Being here, I've seen things I never dreamt I'd see, loved people people I never would have know if I'd stayed where I was. [looks directly at Ianto] And I wouldn't change that for the world.

Jack

[draws a line on a piece of paper] Linear time. [balls the piece of paper up] Screwed up time. Imagine your life is a straight line, from birth to death. Now, try drawing that line on the paper without straightening it out.

Gwen

It's impossible.

Jack

That's why we gotta stop it.

Gwen

Have you ever eaten alien meat?

Jack

Yeah.

Gwen

What was it like?

Jack

Well, he seemed to enjoy it.

Rhys

Well if you stopped and asked me exactly what I saw in there instead of showin' off...

Do I show off?

Ianto

Just a bit.

Rhys

...You'd know that I got out by telling them I wanted a job as a delivery boy! So rather than "cock things up", I found you a way to get in! But if you can't handle that, big boy, then you can stuff it!

Jack

This is quite homoerotic.

Jack

If we go in there, guns blazing-

Owen

I wasn't suggesting blazing. Just waving.

Jack

[talking about the alien] We're going to save it. Stabilize it, wait for the rift to open, and, fwooh, send it back.

Ianto

...And guess who'll have to look after it in the meantime?

Jack

Now I have to help you all go back. Find a memory that defines you, rediscover who you are. If I'm wrong, he will still be here when we've done this. [turns off computer screen] Let me take you back to before we all met. [turns off lights] Feel around for anything that makes you what you are. The hidden and the forgotten. Tell me where you are.

Gwen

College canteen. Rhys is sitting opposite me telling stupid jokes.

Owen

It's my birthday, ten. My mum spends the whole day screaming, ‘I love you because you're my son but that doesn't mean I have to like you.'

Maths club. There's something so reliable about maths. Always the right answer.

Ianto

Meeting Lisa. Falling in love. I never felt so alive.

Owen

Turned sixteen, she packs my bags. That is the nicest thing you've done for me in years mother.

Gwen

Kissing in the supermarket. The look on his face.

My first flat. I don't have a flat warming – there's no one I want to invite.

Ianto

Losing Lisa. Like the world had ended.

Gwen

The way he looks at me sometimes, as if he's scared of what he feels for me. I love him [turns to Jack] but not in the way I love you.

Jack

[to Gwen] Take this [Gwen takes the retcon pill]

Knowing there has to be more to life than this, knowing I'm special, waiting for someone to see it.

Jack

I saw it [gives her a pill]

Owen

You save one life, a hundred lives but it's never enough. Who will save me?

Jack

I will [gives him a pill]

Ianto

Coming here, it gave me meaning again. [Turns to Jack] You. [Jack kisses his forehead then gives him a pill]

Jack

[to everyone] You each have a short-term amnesia pill. It will make you forget Adam. We have to wipe out the last 48 hours from our memories. Go back to who we were.

[Switches the screen on to look at Adam in his cell] I'm going to lose so much.

Jack

None of it was real.

He loved me and I loved him. It's no different from real memories.

Jack

He forced it on you. You have to let it go

[Takes her pill, then looks at the screen] Goodbye Adam.

Jack

Oh, by the way, I found your diary.

Ianto

Ah, yes, I've been looking for that. [starts to walk away]

Jack

And for the record, measuring tapes never lie.

Ianto

[quietly] Fuck.

Ianto

Jack? Your V.I.P guest is here.

Gwen

I didn't know we were expecting anyone. [The rest of the team turn towards the entrance to the Hub]

Jack

On a dark night in Cardiff, I hear the song of a nightingale.

Gwen

Oh, um, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I get a bit confused, which one's UNIT?

Jack

Intelligence. Millitary. Cute red caps. Acceptable face of intelligence gathering on aliens. We're more ad hoc, but better looking. [emphasis on "better looking" directed at Martha]

Jack

"Tosh, any luck with retrieving those medical records?

Not yet. I'm going to have to dig down into the system memory and see if I can find any remnants of deleted or temporary files. Completely illegal, of course. [smiles a bit ]

Jack

Only in suffering do we realize beauty.

Owen

Yeah, yeah. Who said that?

Jack

Proust.

Owen

You've read Proust?

Jack

Yeah. [pause] Well, no. We dated for a while. He was really immature.

Jack

...But then, forever's overrated.

Owen

Not from where I'm sitting.

Jack

If you've got forever, you don't notice the flecks in the concrete, or bother to touch the bricks. You send your friends into danger, knowing the stakes aren't the same for you, that you might get them killed — while you walk away unscathed.

Owen

[to Jack about him trying to drown himself] You were watching?

Jack

Skinny guy in tight jeans runs into water? I was taking pictures!