The Ninth Gate Quotes

Baroness Kessler: My latest work: "The Devil: History and Myth" - a kind of biography. It will be published early next year.

Dean Corso: Why the devil?

Baroness Kessler: [laughs] I saw him one day. I was fifteen years old, and I saw him as plain as I see you now. It was love at first sight.

Dean Corso: You know, 300 years ago, you'd have been burned at the stake for saying something like that.

Baroness Kessler: 300 years ago I wouldn't have said it!

Liana Telfer: Don't fuck with me!

Dean Corso: I thought I already did.

Boris Balkan: [Crashing the black mass] Mumbo Jumbo! Mumbo Jumbo!

[shouts]

Boris Balkan: MUMBO JUMBO! Mumbo Jumbo!

Liana Telfer: You work for money I take it.

Dean Corso: What else?

Liana Telfer: I have a great deal of money.

Dean Corso: I'm very happy for you.

Bernie: I already told him I had no part of this operation.

Dean Corso: Except ten percent.

Bernie: Twenty percent. The Swiss was my client.

Dean Corso: [shakes his head] No deal.

Bernie: Fifteen. For my children's sake.

Dean Corso: You don't have any children.

Bernie: I'm still young. Give me time.

Dean Corso: [expels a lungful of smoke, unmoved] Ten.

[first lines]

Dean Corso: It's an impressive collection. You have some very rare editions here. Are you sure you want to sell them all?

Old Man's Son: They're of no use to father. Not anymore. Not since he's been this way. His library was his whole world. Now it's just a painful memory.

Boris Balkan: You must see her again.

Dean Corso: Are you kidding? Have you seen her secretary?

Boris Balkan: Try the lunch break.

[last lines]

Boris Balkan: It's miraculous I feel nothing! Nothing at all.

Boris Balkan: Behold, I plunge my hands in fire! I feel no heat!

Dean Corso: That's just great! Give us another.

Dean Corso: Where's the last engraving? I want it!

The Girl: You're running low on gas.

Dean Corso: [indicating to the engravings] You killed for those! They're worth more than money.

Boris Balkan: Infinitely more. But they happen to be mine... not yours.

Boris Balkan: [performing the ceremony] Now you can watch! I'm entering uncharted territory. Taking the road that leads to equality, with God. You can't come with me... I must travel alone but you may look on, and marvel.

Dean Corso: That's very kind of you.

Boris Balkan: Indeed it is. There have been men who have been burned alive or disemboweled for just a glimpse of what you are about to witness.

[has found Balkan in a castle with the readings and now confronts him]

Boris Balkan: [nervous] Corso.

Dean Corso: What were you expecting? An apparition?

Boris Balkan: You're not wanted here, Mr Corso. Leave!

Dean Corso: I'm the only apparition you'll see tonight.

Boris Balkan: [calmly trying to get rid of Dean so he can have this moment all to himself] You'll find a check at my New York office. Payment in full.

Dean Corso: [pulls Liana's gun on him] Stand aside.

Boris Balkan: I credited you with more finesse.

Dean Corso: You heard me. Stand back!

Boris Balkan: Put that away. It's not your style.

[upon overpowering him and shoving him into a hole in the floor]

Boris Balkan: It seems you found your proper niche at last... I like that.

Boris Balkan: You don't like me, do you?

Dean Corso: I don't have to like you, you're a client and you pay well.

The Girl: He's dead, who cares?

Dean Corso: I do. I could easily wind up the same way.

The Girl: Not with me around, to look after you.

Dean Corso: Oh, I see, you're my Guardian Angel, then.

The Girl: If you say so.

Boris Balkan: Our relations have always been strictly commercial, and that's the way I like it. The professional and the personal should be mutually exclusive.

Dean Corso: Listen, I came here to do some business, not shoot the breeze. If you want to expound your personal philosophies, write another book.

The Girl: What do you plan to do if you see them?

Dean Corso: I'll probably hide behind you.

Dean Corso: Have you studied the engravings? They seem to have some underlying significance.

Ceniza: But of course.

[Points to an engraving in the book]

Ceniza: Here, for example. This one could be interpreted as a warning. "Venture too far," It seems to say, "and danger will descend on you from above." This type of books often contain little puzzles. Especially in the case of such an illustrious collaborator.

Dean Corso: Collaborator?

Ceniza: You cannot have proceeded very far with your research, señor. Here, look close.

[Handles a magnifying glass to Corso]

Ceniza: Don't you see? Only six of the nine engravings were signed by Aristide Torchia.

Dean Corso: Yes. And the other three?

Ceniza: But this is one of them.

Dean Corso: [Reads through the magnifying class] L... C... F... Who is LCF?

Ceniza: Think.

Dean Corso: [Thinks a few seconds] Lucifer?

Ceniza: Very perceptive of you, señor ! Torchia was burned alive because he wrote this book in collaboration with someone else.

Dean Corso: Come on! You can't honestly believe...

Ceniza: The man who wrote this book did so in alliance with the Devil and went to the stake for it.

[Grinning sarcastically]

Ceniza: Even Hell has its heroes, señor !

Boris Balkan: [On the phone] What news?

Dean Corso: News? Let me see... Well... Yes. The good news is I got to examine the old woman's book and three of her engravings were signed "LCF". The bad news is that someone strangled her and made a bonfire of her collection. Now that's tragic, wouldn't you say?

Boris Balkan: You took the words out of my mouth.

Dean Corso: Yes, it's the Fargas story all over again. I think they tore out the engravings before they torched the place. That makes two sets they've got.

Boris Balkan: And my copy?

Dean Corso: Well, I learned my lesson, fortunately... I don't carry it around with me anymore. Otherwise, it might have gone up in smoke.

Boris Balkan: Excellent. Good thinking. Well, with two copies gone, that seems to conclude your assignment. It only remains for you to return my book. I'm staying at the Ritz, you can pick up your check at the same time. Shall we say half an hour?

Dean Corso: There's more bad news. I don't have it.

Boris Balkan: You don't have it?

Dean Corso: Someone lifted it from my room.

Boris Balkan: Listen to me very carefully, Mr. Corso. I think you may already have some idea of the lengths to which I'm prepared to go when I want something. Unless you recover my property in double-quick time, you'll discover just how far that can be.