Lucien Cordier (Philippe Noiret) You know I never arrest anyone unless I have to. I have enough troubles of my own.
Leonelli (Gerard Hernandez) What good is an empty prison?
Lucien Cordier What are you hunting?
Leonelli Nothing, jerk. We're shooting stiffs.
Le Peron Doesn't bother them and it's fun for us. When dysentery's cured, we'll find a new sport.
Lucien Cordier I've got no choice. First, I'm underpaid; second, my wife takes all my money; and third, fining you is practically a civic duty.
Lucien Cordier That's a fine profession. A vocation, I'd say. Thanks to you, black children will be able to read their daddy's name on French war memorials.
Lucien Cordier Doing nothing is my job. I'm paid for it.
Le Peron So go do nothing somewhere else.
Lucien Cordier In jail?
Marcel Chevasson Someday you'll learn a coffin costs the state less than a man in a cell, old chum.
Lucien Cordier No, not exactly. The main thing is the board.
Marcaillou The board?
Lucien Cordier Yeah, covering that hole there. What if somebody fell in and broke his leg? It'd be your fault.
Marcaillou So?
Lucien Cordier So, since nobody did, I'll let you off this time.
Lucien Cordier holds down a statue of Christ while the Priest nails it to a cross.
Lucien Cordier I can't.
Priest Why not?
Lucien Cordier First, because I'm not brave, honest, and hard-working. And second, because I don't think my bosses want me to be.
Priest How come?
Lucien Cordier If they wanted someone brave, honest, and hard-working, they wouldn't have hired me.
Lucien Cordier shoots Marcaillou and then kicks him as he lies on the ground.
Lucien Cordier Kicking a dying man isn't very nice. But first, I wanted to, and second, it's no risk. This hurts me more than you.
Lucien Cordier kicks Marcaillou again.
Anne You like sounding illiterate? You're not. So why?
Lucien Cordier Habit. Grammar gets rusty like everything else if you don't use it. And in Africa the same goes for good and evil. What's good? What's evil? Nobody knows. It's not much use here. So it gets rusty too. Must be the climate.
Lucien Cordier No, I was just getting rid of trash. The trash also happened to be your husband.
Rose There's a lot of trash around.
Lucien Cordier There'll be less and less. Had to start somewhere.
Lucien Cordier What's wrong? You know I have to.
Friday (Samba Mane) But Captain, I trusted you. You're different from other white men.
Lucien Cordier There's your mistake.
Lucien Cordier shoots Friday.
Colonel Tramichel (Francois Perrot) A last adieu to his master.
Rose He just wants to eat him. Right, Spot?
George Le Peron (Jean-Pierre Marielle) Sure did.
Lucien Cordier It sure took guts. All those niggers armed with clubs. And all you had was machine guns.
George Le Peron But a pole is an inanimate object.
Lucien Cordier Aren't we all more or less inanimate?
George Le Peron What do you mean?
Lucien Cordier Who knows!
George Le Peron I see.
Lucien Cordier I try to save the innocent but there aren't any. All crimes are collective. We contribute to each other's crimes. We all shot your brother. And maybe I did a bit more than my share.
George Le Peron Go ahead.
Lucien Cordier When you scratch your balls, is it 'cause they itch, or 'cause it feels good?
Rose Sleep is all you do.
Lucien Cordier It's the best thing besides eating. When you eat or sleep, you forget about the things you can't solve. Think about it. You'll see I'm right.
Rose Thinking's not what I need.
Rose You saw everything?
Lucien Cordier Let's say I heard everything.
Rose And you did nothing?
Lucien Cordier Why should I have done something?
Rose Why... to stop me.
Lucien Cordier It wasn't up to me to stop you. It was up to you, to Huguette, Nono, Marcaillou. If I put temptation in front of you, it's not a reason to use it. I just help folks reveal their true character. It's a dirty job, Rose. And I deserve all the dirty pleasure I get out of it.
Rose You're not ashamed?
Lucien Cordier Part of my job is enjoying other folks' misery.
Rose You've gone completely crazy!
Lucien Cordier Not at all. Normally I should crack down on the rich and powerful, but that's just what I'm not allowed to do. So I make up for it by coming down twice as hard on the poor, the wretched, the niggers, and girls like you who've put their brains where they sit. Does that make you cry? Don't. It won't help. You know, I've sobbed my heart out. It didn't solve anything.
Rose You have to help me. I can't take it. What can I do?
Lucien Cordier How the hell do I know? Any idiot can see they were shot with your gun.
Rose But that's horrible!
Lucien Cordier At first it is horrible. But then you start to think about starving kids, little girls sold into slavery, women whose sex is sewn up... God created murder out of pure kindness. Murder is nothing compared to those horrors.
Rose They say there are a hundred kinds of deaths. I hope yours will be the worst.