Joubert: Condor is an amateur. He's lost, unpredictable, perhaps even sentimental. He could fool a professional. Not deliberately, but precisely because he is lost, doesn't know what to do. Unlike Wicks, who has always been entirely predictable.
Joe Turner: I'd like to go back to New York. Joubert: You have not much future there. It will happen this way. You may be walking. Maybe the first sunny day of the spring. And a car will slow beside you, and a door will open, and someone you know, ma...
[Wabash talks about his entry into the US intelligence field] Mr. Wabash: I go even further back than that. Ten years after The Great War, as we used to call it. Before we knew enough to number them. Higgins: You miss that kind of action, sir? Mr. Wa...
Higgins: It's simple economics. Today it's oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food. Plutonium. Maybe even sooner. Now, what do you think the people are gonna want us to do then? Joe Turner: Ask them? Higgins: Not now - then! Ask 'em when they're ru...
[after Joubert unexpectedly kills someone] Joe Turner: Why? Joubert: I don't interest myself in "why". I think more often in terms of "when", sometimes "where"; always "how much".
Higgins: Oh, you... you poor dumb son of a bitch. You've done more damage than you know. Joe Turner: I hope so.
Joe Turner: Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?
Jimmy: Hey, Shakespeare! How's it going? Joe Turner: Terrific. I'm building up a great collection of rejection slips. Jimmy: [as he prepares Turner's lunch order] Yeah, I know the feeling. I always wanted to be Escoffier. Joe Turner: Well, maybe it's...
[last lines] Higgins: Hey, Turner! How do you know they'll print it? You can take a walk. But how far if they don't print it? Joe Turner: They'll print it. Higgins: How do you know?
Joubert: Well, the fact is, what I do is not a bad occupation. Someone is always willing to pay. Joe Turner: I would find it... tiring. Joubert: Oh, no - it's quite restful. It's almost peaceful. No need to believe in either side, or any side. There ...
Joubert: [offering Turner a gun] For that day.
Kathy: Oh no, I'll help. You can always depend on the ol' spy fucker.
Joe Turner: I've got a plan. I don't know if it'll work or not, but I'll need your help. Kathy: Have I ever denied you anything?
Kathy: You're not entitled to personal questions! That gun gives you the right to rough me up; it doesn't give you the right to ask me... Joe Turner: Wh- wh- Rough you up? Have I roughed you up? Kathy: Yes! What are you doing in my house? Joe Turner:...
Kathy: You... you have a lot of very fine qualities. But... Joe Turner: What fine qualities? Kathy: You have good eyes. Not kind, but they don't lie, and they don't look away much, and they don't miss anything. I could use eyes like that. Joe Turner:...
Joe Turner: I don't remember yesterday. Today it rained.
Joubert: Would you move from the window, please? Janice: I won't scream. Joubert: I know.
Kathy: Sometimes I take a picture that isn't like me. But I took it so it is like me. It has to be. I put those pictures away. Joe Turner: I'd like to see those pictures. Kathy: We don't know each other that well. Joe Turner: Do you know anybody that...
