Rust Cohle quotes from True Detective

Rust Cohle

There was a moment-- I know when I was under in the dark that something... whatever I'd been reduced to, you know, not even consciousness. It was a vague awareness in the dark, and I could-- I could feel my definitions fading. And beneath that... darkness, there was another kind. It was--it was deeper, warm, you know, like a substance. I could feel, man, and I knew, I knew my daughter waited for me there. So clear. I could feel her. [Voice trembling] I could feel... I could feel a piece of my--my pop, too. It was like I was a part of everything that I ever loved, and we were all... the 3 of us, just-- just fadin' out. And all I had to do was let go... and I did. I said, Darkness, yeah, yeah." And I disappeared. But I could-- I could still feel her love there, even more than before. Nothing... There was nothing but that love. [Sobbing] Then I woke up.

Rust Cohle

Once there was only dark. If you ask me, the light's winning.

Rust Cohle

People out here, they don't even know the outside world exists. Might as well be living on the fucking Moon.

There's all kinds of ghettos in the world.

Rust Cohle

It's all one ghetto man, giant gutter in outer space.

Rust Cohle

I'd consider myself a realist, alright? But in philosophical terms I'm what's called a pessimist.

Okay, what's that mean?

Rust Cohle

It means I'm bad at parties.

Let me tell you, you ain't great outside of parties either.

Rust Cohle

I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware. Nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law.

Wow, that sounds God fucking awful, Rust.

We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, this accretion of sensory experience and feelings, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody's nobody.

I wouldn't go around spouting that shit if I was you. People around here don't think that way, I don't think that way.

I think the honorable thing for our species to do is deny our programming. Stop reproducing. Walk hand in hand into extinction. One last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.

So, what's the point in getting out of bed in the morning?

Rust Cohle

I tell myself I bear witness, but the real answer is that it's obviously my programming. And I lack the constitution for suicide.

My luck, I picked today to get to know you and... three months I don't hear a word from you and...

Rust Cohle

You asked.

Yeah, and now I'm begging you to shut the fuck up.

Rust Cohle

This place is like somebody's memory of a town, and the memory is fading. It's like there was never anything here but jungle.

Stop saying shit like that. It's unprofessional.

Rust Cohle

Came close another time... Lori. Maggie introduced us. It broke off. It was for the best, you know, I gave her cause. I can be hard to live with. I don't mean to, but I can be... critical. [sigh] Sometimes I think I'm just not good for people, that it's not good for them to be around me. I wear 'em down. They... they get unhappy.

Hmm... yeah, I think the job does that to a lot of guys. Changes ya. Some guys just notice, that's all.

Rust Cohle

I can't say the job made me this way. More like me being this way made me right for the job. I used to think about it more, but you reach a certain age you know who you are. Now I live in a little room, out in the country behind a bar, work four nights a week, and in between I drink. And there ain't nobody there to stop me. I know who I am. And after all these years, there's a victory in that.

[about Beth] That girl's not 18. Sheriff know you got underage workin' here?

What do you know about where that girl's been? Where she come from? You wanna know Beth's situation 'fore she ran out on her uncle?

There are other places she could go.

Such holy bullshit from you. It's a woman's body, ain't it? A woman's choice.

Well, she don't look like a woman to me. At that age she is not equipped to make those kinda choices. But I guess you don't give a shit what kind of damage she's doin' to herself as long as you're makin' your money.

Girls walk this Earth all the time screwin' for free. Why is it you add business to the mix and boys like you can't stand the thought? I'll tell you. It's cause suddenly you don't own it the way you thought you did.

[Gives money to Beth] Do something else.

Rust Cohle

That a down payment?

Is shitting on any moment of decency part of your job description?

What?

Rust Cohle

You wash up, you got some pussy on ya.

Key to a healthy marriage.

Rust Cohle

Oh, that's Maggie, huh?

Hey! What's with your fucking nose?

Rust Cohle

Nothing man, sorry, forget it.

I get a connotation being implied here... about my wife?

Rust Cohle

Are you saying that's your wife? That high tide you're walking in with?

[Angrily slams Rust into a locker] You got some idea how my wife's pussy is supposed to smell?

Rust Cohle

No, I just meant you're wearing the same clothes as you did yesterday. [slowly grabs Martin's wrists] Coupled with the fact that I ain't stupid. Wasn't making no comment as to the particularity of the scent.

You don't say fuck-all about my wife... don't say her name!

Rust Cohle

You got some self loathing to do this morning, that's fine, but it ain't worth losing your hands over.

How would that work exactly?

Rust Cohle

I'd just apply a couple of pounds of pressure. [tightens the grip on Martin's wrists] Snap your wrists. You're senior detective, think I'm lying?

Rust Cohle

What do you think the average IQ of this group is, huh?

Can you see Texas up there on your high horse? What do you know about these people?

Rust Cohle

Just observation and deduction. I see a propensity for obesity. Poverty. A yen for fairy tales. Folks puttin' what few bucks they do have into a little wicker basket being passed around. I think it's safe to say nobody here's gonna be splitting the atom, Marty.

You see that. Your fucking attitude. Not everybody wants to sit alone in an empty room beating off to murder manuals. Some folks enjoy community. A common good.

Rust Cohle

Yeah, well if the common good's gotta make up fairy tales, then it's not good for anybody.

I mean, can you imagine if people didn't believe, what things they'd get up to?

Rust Cohle

Exact same thing they do now. Just out in the open.

Bullshit. It'd be a fucking freak show of murder and debauchery and you know it.

Rust Cohle

If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then brother that person is a piece of shit; and I'd like to get as many of them out in the open as possible.

Well, I guess your judgment is infallible, piece-of-shit-wise. You think that notebook is a stone tablet?

Rust Cohle

What's it say about life, hmm? You gotta get together, tell yourself stories that violate every law of the universe just to get through the goddamn day. Nah. What's that say about your reality, Marty?

You figure it's all a scam, huh? All them folks? They just wrong?

Rust Cohle

Oh yeah! Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey, "He said for you to give me your fucking share." People... so goddamn frail they'd rather put a coin in the wishing well than buy dinner.

Rust Cohle

Transference of fear and self-loathing to an authoritarian vessel. It's catharsis. He absorbs their dread with his narrative. Because of this, he's effective in proportion to the amount of certainty he can project. Certain linguistic anthropologists think that religion is a language virus that rewrites pathways in the brain. Dulls critical thinking.

Well, I don't use ten dollar words as much as you, but for a guy who sees no point in existence, you sure fret about it an awful lot. And you still sound panicked.

Rust Cohle

At least I'm not racing to a red light.

Do you wonder ever if you're a bad man?

Rust Cohle

No. I don't wonder, Marty. World needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door.

Fuuuck! Hell of a bedside manner you've got, Rust.

Rust Cohle

Ahh, you know, being stupid is different than going in sick, and this is a bar, not a fuckin' bedside.