Mike Wallace: Who are these people? Lowell Bergman: Ordinary people under extraordinary pressure, Mike. What the hell do you expect? Grace and consistency?
Mike Wallace: No that's fame. Fame has a fifteen minute half-life, infamy lasts a little longer.
Lowell Bergman: I fought for you and I still fight for you! Jeffrey Wigand: You fought for me? You manipulated me! Into where I am now - staring at the Brown & Williamson building, it's all dark except for the tenth floor. That's the legal department...
Agent: Do you have a history of emotional problems, Mr. Wigand? Jeffrey Wigand: Yes. Yes, I do. I get extremely emotional when assholes put bullets in my mailbox!
Tobacco Lawyer: Dr. Wigand, I am instructing you not to answer that question in accordance to the terms of the contractual obligations undertaken by you not to disclose any information about your work at the Brown and Williamson tobacco company, and ...
[Jeff won't answer the phone, Lowell is on the telephone to the manager of the hotel he is at] Lowell Bergman: I want you to tell him, in this - in these words: "Get on the fucking phone!" The Hotel Worker: I can't say that. Lowell Bergman: No, you c...
Mike Wallace: "Mike"? Try "Mr. Wallace." We work in the same corporation, doesn't mean we work in the same profession. What are you gonna do now? You gonna finesse me? Lawyer me some more? I've been in this profession fifty fucking years. You and the...
Lowell Bergman: You pay me to go get guys like Wigand, to draw him out. To get him to trust us, to get him to go on television. I do. I deliver him. He sits. He talks. He violates his own fucking confidentiality agreement. And he's only the key witne...
Jeffrey Wigand: So, what you're saying is it wasn't enough to fire me for no good reason. Now you question my integrity? On top of the humiliation of being fired, you threaten me? You threaten my family? It never crossed my mind not to honor my agree...
Helen Caperelli: [Referring to CBS News] Our standards have to be higher than anyone else because we are the standard of everyone else.
Lowell Bergman: This news division has been *villified* by the New York Times! In print, on television, for *caving* to corporate interests! Don Hewitt: New York Times ran a blow by blow of what we talked about behind closed doors! You fucked us! Low...
Mike Wallace: And do you wish you hadn't come forward? Do you wish you hadn't blown the whistle? Jeffrey Wigand: There are times when I wish I hadn't done it. There are times when I feel com... compelled to do it. If you asked me, would I do it again...
Lowell Bergman: In all that time, Mike, did you ever get out a plane, walk into a room and find that a source for a story changed his mind? Lost his heart? Walked out on us? Not one fucking time. You want to know why? Mike Wallace: I see a rhetorical...
Lowell Bergman: I never left a source hang out to dry, ever! Abandoned! Not 'till right fucking now. When I came on this job I came with my word intact. I'm gonna leave with my word intact. Fuck the rules of the game!
Lowell Bergman: You'd better take a *good* look, because I'm getting two things: pissed off and curious.
Jeffrey Wigand: I'm just a commodity to you, aren't I? I could be anything. Right? Anything worth putting on between commercials. Lowell Bergman: To a network, probably, we're all commodities. To me? You are not a commodity. What you are is important...
Mike Wallace: In the real world, when you get to where I am, there are other considerations. Lowell Bergman: Like what? Corporate responsibility? What, are we talking celebrity here? Mike Wallace: I'm not talking celebrity, vanity, CBS. I'm talking a...
Mike Wallace: Am I missing something? John Harris: What do you mean, Mike? Mike Wallace: I mean, he's got a corporate secrecy agreement - give me a break! I mean, this is a public health issue! Like an unsafe airframe on a passenger jet or some compa...
