- Jackie 'Stevie' Stevenson: You're jealous.
- John River: I'm not jealous. This isn't jealousy. I'm just trying to find out the truth. I'm trying to find out who did this to you. Who you ARE!
- Jackie 'Stevie' Stevenson: Is it so surprising that I might have had a boyfriend?
- John River: You have your arms around him. You're smiling and you have your arms around him.
- Jackie 'Stevie' Stevenson: Didn't you ever wonder?
- John River: You didn't tell. I didn't ask.
- Jackie 'Stevie' Stevenson: And you weren't ever curious?
- John River: [Scoffs] The thought that... The thought that someone... And that he then... And he then... That he could be the person that did this to you... If it was sex you wanted...
- Jackie 'Stevie' Stevenson: Then what? And you would have given it to me? If that had been true, then we would have... We would have...
- John River: We're born alone. We die alone.
- Jackie 'Stevie' Stevenson: You always say that, but there's more to that quote, you know. I couldn't take my clothes off with the lights on. How was I ever going to take my clothes off for a man? For just any man? Sex is an itch you just scratch. But love... That's the itch so far down your back, you can't ever reach it with your own hand.
- Thomas Cream: "My grandmother gave me warm chocolate, and bread, and wrapped me in a towel, and I sat there, warm and tired, and she sang to me." Such sentimentality, Inspector. Such reinvention, sir. Such a blatant disregard of the facts. But the truth is you sat there on her knee, while your mother... your mother just left you. You were a burden to your grandmother until the day she died. You weren't wanted there. What did your grandmother call you? Idiot? Mutterer? Babbler? A fairy tale you've told yourself, to calm you in the dark. They're all lies, sir. All lies. All lies. ALL LIES!
- Michael Bennigan: There's no dignity in aging. I've got two little hearing aides that cost me 1,000 quid each. I've got a prostate that my doctor sees as a money-making venture. And... here they are...
- [puts on his glasses, then holds the case records at arm's length]