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 agreement. And I will tell you, Mr. Sandefur... and Brown and Williamson too - fuck me? Well, fuck you.
Jeffrey Wigand: Up to you, Jeffrey! That's the power you have, Jeffrey! Vital inside information the American public need to know! Lowell Bergman, the hotshot who never met a source he couldn't turn around.
Jeffrey Wigand: Fuck it. Let's go to court.
Don Hewitt: Are you suggesting that she and Eric are influenced by money?
Lowell Bergman: No, no, of course they're not influenced by money. They work for free. And you are a volunteer executive producer.
Sharon Tiller: You won.
Lowell Bergman: Yeah? What did I win?
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 question on the horizon.
Lowell Bergman: I'm gonna tell you why: because when I tell someone I'm gonna do something, I deliver.
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.
Jeffrey Wigand: I told the truth.
Sharon Tiller: Get some perspective, Lowell.
Lowell Bergman: I got perspective.
Sharon Tiller: No, you do not.
Lowell Bergman: From my perspective, what's been going on and what I've been doing is ridiculous. It's half-measures.
Sharon Tiller: You're not listening. Really know what you're gonna do before you do it.
Lowell Bergman: Are you a businessman? Or are you a newsman?
Lowell Bergman: We've got a guy who wants to talk, but he's constrained. What if he were compelled?
Mike Wallace: Oh, torture. Great ratings.
Lowell Bergman: I never left a source hang out to dry, ever! Abandoned! Not 'til 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.
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 company dumping cyanide into the East River, issues like that! He can talk, we can air it! They've got no right to hide behind a "corporate agreement"! Pass the milk.
Mike Wallace: Sheikh Fadlallah. Thank you so much for seeing us. Are you a terrorist?
Sheikh Fadlallah: Mr. Wallace, I am a servant of God.
Mike Wallace: A servant of God? Really? Americans believe that you, as an Islamic fundamentalist, that you are a leader who contributed to the bombing of the US Embassy.
Mike Wallace: Who are these people?
Lowell Bergman: Ordinary people under extraordinary pressure, Mike. What the hell do you expect? Grace and consistency?
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.
Jeffrey Wigand: I can't seem to find the criteria to decide. It's too big a decision to make without being resolved in my own mind.
Lowell Bergman: Maybe things have changed.
Jeffrey Wigand: What's changed?
Lowell Bergman: You mean since this morning?
Jeffrey Wigand: No, I mean since whenever.
Mike Wallace: No that's fame. Fame has a fifteen minute half-life, infamy lasts a little longer.
Mike Wallace: You cut it! You cut the guts out of what I said.
Eric Kluster: It was a time consideration, Mike.
Mike Wallace: Time? Bullshit! You corporate lackey! Who told you your incompetent little fingers had the requisite skills to edit me?
