Citizen X Quotes

Burakov: You think that a man is what he says.

Fetisov: He is, if he talks for a living.

Bukhanovsky: It is embarrassing to see grown men run from their responsibilities. It is like seeing your parents drunk for the first time. They are afraid. To be a psychiatrist in this country is to be an expert on paranoia... whether you meant to be or not.

Burakov: Why aren't you afraid?

Bukhanovsky: I'm sorry, do I look like a man of courage to you? I've always been interested in abnormal psychology, which is a dangerous thing in the Soviet state.

Burakov: A man is what he fights for.

Fetisov: I don't fight for anything.

Burakov: I know.

Burakov: You handled him quite deftly.

Fetisov: I've had it. I will not suffer that stupidity anymore!

Burakov: He may be stupid, but he's in charge.

Fetisov: Goddamn it! What is happening to me? My heart is pounding, my collar feels tight; what the hell is this?

Burakov: Passion.

Bondarchuk: I want to know, why are we arresting so many perfectly respectable doctors and party members?

Burakov: Because we were told to.

Bondarchuk: You were told to investigate them, not detain them!

Burakov: The party members who are doctors we detain for a very brief period of time. The party members who are sexual deviants, we intend to detain a little longer.

Fetisov: I have here...

Bondarchuk: I don't care what you have there!

Fetisov: Information...

Bondarchuk: Who cares!

Fetisov: About the nineteen year old boy you maintain in the town of Shakti! And the apartment you have arranged for him... and the gifts that you have given him... and the dates of your last three overnight visits. If you attempt to fire Lieutenant Burakov... now, or at any time... I will send all this to your wife.

Bondarchuk: I recommended you for this position.

Fetisov: I will always be indebted to you.

Fetisov: Blood test came back negative.

Burakov: What?

Fetisov: Semen samples are type AB. Chikatilo is type A.

Burakov: [sighs] I don't believe it.

Fetisov: It's true.

Burakov: What are you talking about "it's true"? What does that mean? Our blood test is for eleven variables. The FBI's is for one hundred and forty nine!

Fetisov: [grinning] How do you know that?

Burakov: [exasperated] I saw it in a movie! What the hell difference does it make what the blood test says, you don't know what you're talking about!

Burakov: [to Bukhanovsky, as Fetisov shakes the doctor's hand] He'd say something witty but he's overcome with emotion right now.

Bukhanovsky: Thank you both. And may I say that, together, you make a wonderful person.

Burakov: Where are they?

Fetisov: Who?

Burakov: The Committee.

Fetisov: We're it.

Burakov: Who's the new head of the investigation?

Fetisov: You.

Burakov: Congratulations, Colonel.

Fetisov: Well... actually, I am a General now. I don't have my insignia yet, but they are on order.

Burakov: Congratulations, General.

Fetisov: And you... are a Colonel. Congratulations, Colonel.

Burakov: Bondarchuck suspects a cop now. Someone who knows how to kill and get away with it.

Mrs. Burakov: I suppose that's a possibility.

Burakov: The one he suspects is me.

Mrs. Burakov: That's absurd.

Burakov: I'm afraid, though. You know what he's like. Someone could come in the night and take me away.

Fetisov: You have a telephone appointment tonight at midnight to speak with the head of the FBI's Serial Killer Task Force, Special Agent Bickworth. He told me late last night that he has been following your work on this case with great interest for about five years. I... didn't ask him how. He considers you a man of iron will. For what it's worth, I concur. And he al... he also told me that he rotates his people off serial murder cases every eighteen months whether they like it or not, to prevent the inevitable psychological consequences of too much frustration. I... I pretended that I had known that all along. He thinks that I pushed you in search of your limits until I realized that you didn't have any. Privately, I offer my deepest apologies to you and your wife. I hope that someday you can forgive me my ignorance. Anyway, he suggested I not tell you this next, but he said that he starts a new group of recruits through the program every sixteen weeks and the first lecture that he gives is always about you. He calls you the one man in the world that he would least like to have after him. An intelligent, methodical, painstaking, passionate detective who would rather die than give up. Again I concur.

[Burakov is by now weeping]

Fetisov: Colonel Burakov, I'm sorry. You may go.