The Counselor Quotes

Reiner: Are you really that cold?

Malkina: The truth has no temperature.

Counselor: I want her to have something that she would not be uncomfortable wearing. I don't want to give her a diamond so big she'd be afraid to wear it.

Diamond Dealer: She is probably more courageous than you imagine.

Malkina: I can see you're blushing. OK, we'll change the subject.

Laura: Good.

Malkina: We'll talk about MY sex life.

Laura: You're teasing.

Malkina: Just rattling your cage. What a world.

Laura: You think the world is strange?

Malkina: [expression becomes disdainful] I meant yours.

Westray: Have you ever seen a snuff film?

Counselor: No. Have you?

Westray: No. Would you?

Counselor: I would not.

Westray: ...You might want to think about that the next time you do a line.

Westray: Well, I'm perfectly willing to believe you had nothing to do with this but I'm not the party you have to convince.

Counselor: Convince of what, for Christ sake?

Westray: That this is some sort of coincidence. Because they don't really believe in coincidences. They've heard of them. They've just never seen one.

Reiner: I don't know what

[Malkina]

Reiner: knows. I don't want to know.

Counselor: You don't trust her.

Reiner: Jesus Counselor, she's a woman.

Counselor: Yeah, well.

Reiner: Yeah, well, I don't mean to sound cold, I just mean that where women are concerned, they've got their own agenda. I always liked smart women, but it's been an expensive hobby.

Westray: Maybe I should tell you what Mickey Rourke told what's-his-face? That's my recommendation anyway, Counselor. Don't do it.

Counselor: [cites] "This arson is a serious crime."

Westray: Yeah. And so is this.

Counselor: [laughs quietly] Well, I guess I'm a little taken aback at the cautionary nature of this conversation.

Westray: Good word, 'cautionary'.

[first lines]

Laura: Are you awake?

Counselor: No. What time is it?

Laura: Two o'clock. Almost two o'clock.

Counselor: AM or PM?

Malkina: Greed really takes you to the edge, doesn't it?

Reiner: That's not what greed does. That's what greed is.

Counselor: I'm not sure you understand my position.

Jefe: But I do, Counselor. Actions create consequences which produce new worlds, and they're all different.

Counselor: Will you help me?

Jefe: I would urge you to see the truth of the situation you're in, Counselor. That is my advice. It is not for me to tell you what you should have done or not done. The world in which you seek to undo the mistakes that you made is different from the world where the mistakes were made. You are now at the crossing. And you want to choose, but there is no choosing there. There's only accepting. The choosing was done a long time ago... Are you there Counselor?

Counselor: [distraught] Yes.

Jefe: I don't mean to offend you, but reflective men often find themselves at a place removed from the realities of life. In any case, we should all prepare a place where we can accommodate all the tragedies that sooner or later will come to our lives. But this is an economy few people care to practice.

Jefe: Machado would have traded every word, every poem, every verse he ever wrote for one more hour with his beloved. And that is because when it comes to grief, the normal rules of exchange do not apply, because grief transcends value. A man would give entire nations to lift grief off his heart. And yet, you cannot buy anything with grief, because grief is worthless.

Counselor: Why are you telling me this?

Jefe: Because you continue to deny the reality of the world you're in. Do you love your wife so much, so completely, that you would exchange places with her upon the wheel? And I don't mean dying, because dying is easy.

Counselor: Yes! Yes, damn you!

Jefe: Well, that is good to hear, Counselor.

Counselor: What are you saying? Are you saying this is a possibility?

Jefe: No. It's impossible.

Counselor: You said I was that man - at that crossing.

Jefe: Yes. At the understanding that life is not going to take you back. You are the world you have created. And when you cease to exist, this world that you have created will also cease to exist. But for those with the understanding that they're living the last days of the world, death acquires a different meaning. The extinction of all reality is a concept no resignation can encompass. And then, all the grand designs and all the grand plans will be finally exposed and revealed for what they are. And now, Counselor, I have to go, because I have to make other calls. If I have time, I think I'll take a small nap.

[hangs up]

[last lines]

Malkina: To see quarry, killed with elegance, it's just moving to me.

Banker: Is it sexual?

Malkina: Yes, of course. A thing like that is always sexual. The hunter has grace, beauty, and purity of heart to be found nowhere else. You can make no distinction between what they are and what they do. And what they do is kill. We, of course, are another matter. It is our faintness of heart that has driven us to the edge of ruin. Perhaps you won't agree, but nothing is crueler than a coward. And the slaughter to come is probably beyond our imagining.

Banker: I think you've told me more than I wish to know.

Malkina: Then I'll say no more. Shall we think about ordering? I'm famished.

Reiner: Women like you.

Counselor: All right.

Reiner: Do you know what they like about you?

Counselor: I'm a good fuck?

Reiner: Right! No, they can sniff out the moral dilemma. The paradox. "Moral dilemma." Yeah, they're drawn to it. Not sure why. Maybe it's just that lacking any moral sense themselves, they're fascinated by it in men. Men are attracted to flawed women, too, of course, but their illusion is that they can fix them. Women don't want to fix anything. They only want to be entertained. The truth about women is you can do anything to them except bore them.

Counselor: You don't trust her?

Reiner: Jesus, Counselor. She's a woman.