Daryl Zero: You're watching whales? Fuck the whales.
Steve Arlo: I don't think he's ever kissed a girl. He's like 30-something years old.
Daryl Zero: I always say that the essence of my work relies fundamentally on two basic principles: objectivity and observation, or "the two obs" as I call them. My work relies on my ability to remain absolutely, purely objective, detached. I have mastered the fine art of detachment. And while it comes at some cost, this supreme objectivity is what makes me, I dare say, the greatest observer the world has ever known.
Gregory Stark: Is this your kid?
Steve Arlo: Nope. Just a rental.
Daryl Zero: My father was an evil, abusive man. And he killed my mother when she was sleeping. And then he slit his wrists, when I was thirteen. I don't talk about that much. I used to when it happened and then one day I woke up and, I don't know. Everything was different.
Steve Arlo: He can elicit a confession from a criminal without their realizing they're being questioned.
Gregory Stark: How does he do it?
Steve Arlo: He has a deeply nuanced and thoroughly functional understanding of human behavior to rival the great psychoanalytical minds of our time. He understands the criminal mind as well as the innocent mind, the stable mind as well as the psychotic, sociopathic mind. The male, as well as the female.
Steve Arlo: He can tell you where you were born, how old your mother was at the time, and what you had for breakfast, all within 30 seconds of meeting you.
Daryl Zero: Passion is the enemy of precision. Forget the misnomer 'crime of passion'. All crime is passionate. It's passion that moves the criminal to act, to disrupt the static inertia of morality. The client's passion for this dead woman had facilitated his downfall. And the blackmailer's passion will facilitate hers. When you live with no passion at all, other people's passion come into glaring relief.
Steve Arlo: Why are we talking on the phone?
Daryl Zero: I told you. We can't be too careful. Two guys in an airport... talking? It's a little fishy.
Daryl Zero: When you spend enough time around the chemistry of desperation, you come to recognize the smell. One desperate element is combustible. More than one desperate element is lethal.
Steve Arlo: There aren't any good guys. You realise that, don't you? I mean: there aren't evil guys, and innocent guys. It's just - it's just... It's just a bunch of guys.
Daryl Zero: Gregory Stark is the son of a fat man.
Gregory Stark: You can't buy silence. You can only rent it. So if someone has something on you, they are always going to have it. So the cost has no ceiling. And the fear has no end to it. That's why some knowledge, some information is like a terminal disease. It's contagious and it's fatal.
Gloria Sullivan: What doesn't kill you defines you.
Daryl Zero: A person can't escape their nature.
Gloria Sullivan: When your number's up, it's up. There's no sense to it. There's no justice. Innocent people suffer and murderers get away with it. So when my number's up, whether I'm walking down the street or doing something else, that will be that. You know, you, me, anyone could walk out of here and get killed by some drunk in a pick-up truck. I could slip in the shower and break my neck.
Daryl Zero: A few words here about following people. People know they're being followed when they turn around and see someone following them. They can't tell they're being followed if you get there first.
