Howard Beale: We'll tell you anything you want to hear, we lie like hell.
Laureen Hobbs: He's plague, he's smallpox, he's typhoid. I don't want to follow his goddamn show. I want out of that 8 o'clock spot. I've got enough troubles without Howard Beale as a lead-in. You guys scheduled me up against "Tony Orlando and Dawn,"...
Arthur Jensen: Good morning, Mr. Beale. They tell me you're a madman.
Howard Beale: This is not a psychotic breakdown; it's a cleansing moment of clarity.
Secretary: Mr. Hackett's trying to get through to you. Max Schumacher: Tell Mr. Hackett to go fuck himself.
Diana Christensen: By tomorrow, he'll have a 50 share, maybe even a 60. Howard Beale is processed instant God, and right now, it looks like he may just go over bigger than Mary Tyler Moore.
Max Schumacher: After living with you for the last six months, I'm turning into one of your scripts. Well, this is not a script, Diana. There's some real, actual life going on here.
Howard Beale: All human beings are becoming humanoids. All over the world, not just in America. We're just getting there faster since we're the most advanced country.
Howard Beale: No, no. I'm gonna blow my brains out right on the air, right in the middle of the 7 O'clock news. Max Schumacher: You'll get a hell of a rating, I'll guarantee you that. 50 share easy.
Man on Phones: So far, over 900 fucking phone calls complaining about the foul language. Frank Hackett: Shit.
Diana Christensen: I'm interested in doing a weekly dramatic series based on the Ecumenical Liberation Army. The way I see the series is: Each week we open with an authentic act of political terrorism taken on the spot, in the actual moment. Then we ...
Diana Christensen: The time has come to re-evaluate our relationship, Max. Max Schumacher: So I see. Diana Christensen: I don't like the way this script of ours has turned out. It's turning into a seedy little drama. Max Schumacher: You're going to c...
Louise Schumacher: Do you love her? Max Schumacher: I don't know how I feel. I'm grateful I can feel anything. [his wife flinches] Max Schumacher: I know I'm obsessed with her. Louise Schumacher: Then say it. You keep telling me that you're obsessed,...
Nelson Chaney: All I know is that this violates every canon of respectable broadcasting. Frank Hackett: We're not a respectable network. We're a whorehouse network, and we have to take whatever we can get. Nelson Chaney: Well, I don't want any part o...
Nelson Chaney: The affiliates won't carry it. Frank Hackett: The affiliates will kiss your ass if you can hand them a hit show.
[immediately after making love with Max] Diana Christensen: What's really bugging me now is my daytime programming. NBC's got a lock on daytime - lousy game shows - and I'd like to bust them. I'm thinking of doing a homosexual soap opera, "The Dykes"...
Diana Christensen: [begins passionately making out with Max] NBC's offering 2.2 and a half mill per [kiss] Diana Christensen: per package of five James Bond movies, and I think I'm going to steal them for 3.5 [kiss] Diana Christensen: for their third...
Frank Hackett: I argued that television was a volatile industry in which success and failure were determined week by week; Mr. Jensen does not like volatile industries and suggested with a certain sinister silkiness that volatility in business usuall...
