Taboo
Tuesdays 10:00 PM on FXTaboo Quotes
You are in every way an unopened box. Just when I think it's empty I hear a tiger roaring inside it.
Lorna [to Delaney]
Delaney: You feel me, don't you, when I break in?
Zilpha: No.
Delaney: Yes, you do. You feel me. And I could come more often, but I spare you.
Zilpha: Then spare me. I went to a doctor. He took me to a priest who'd been to a mission in Africa.
Delaney: Yes. What did he say?
Zilpha: He said they exist as animals. He couldn't even look at me after I told him.
Delaney: After I left England, I thought I was mad. But they taught me to use it: now it's a gift.
Zilpha: It's the devil.
Lorna: Judging by the horror on the faces of the ladies, you are known.
Delaney: Yes, and judging by the shame on the faces of the men, so are you.
Cholmondeley: Show me this cow shit. Pigeon shit? Yeah, better. Now wood.
Delaney: Some birch, but it's mostly hazel.
Cholmondeley: Oak's better. What about piss?
Delaney: I'm sorry?
Cholmondeley: Human urine is by far the best for leeching the ash. Especially with traces of alcohol. How many humans live here?
Delaney: Three. I sent them away. Ask me no more questions and speak to me only of chemistry.
Cholmondeley: If you mix the pigeon shit and the cow shit at a ratio of around 60/40 in favor of the pigeon, and if you burned this stack of wood today, you could soak the ashes with 50 gallons of human piss and leave for a minimum of a year, and then, my friend. you would have gunpowder.
Delaney: I don't have a year.
Cholmondeley: Well, I have a theory that the introduction of several barrels of saltpeter that have already been refined at the start of the process can cut the leeching stage down to 4 weeks.
Delaney: Theory?
Cholmondeley: Yes, but my theories are always right.
Delaney: As far as I know, there is only one place one can find refined saltpeter.
Cholmondeley: Two: the bat caves of Burma, where the batshit refines itself, or the warehouse at the East India company.
Delaney: You are hired. As to the saltpeter I will get it for you.
Lorna: If your intervention had been 10 minutes later, I'd have been raped. But the consequence to you was worth the risk to me, yes?
Delaney: You see me as I am. All those that I gather are damned, it's just a company policy of mine.
Lorna: Is that why you let it happen? To teach me a lesson?
Delaney: No, that was to teach the King a lesson: and the Company. But if you are absolutely resolute in staying, then I may agree to incorporate you into the organization.
Lorna: Oh, I see. I passed the test.
Delaney: No.
Lorna: And join the League of the Damned?
Delaney: A group of people who are drawn together to do exactly as I say.
Lorna: We are the ships: you are the river.
We're all just part of the plan, aren't we sir?
Brace [to Delaney]
Delaney: I have a use for you.
Cholmondeley: You know, semen not ejaculated at the point of passion, turns to poison and narrows the mind. Actually, you become an ape.
Delaney: So, ejaculate. Then we can talk business.
Cholmondeley: Is that gold?
Delaney: Has the semen yet turned to poison? I believe you invented a chemical process for verification.
Cholmondeley: Yeah. So what is it exactly that you would use me for?
Godfrey: They talked about gunpowder. And it was said that if Delaney Trading wanted to trade with the Indians at Nootka the only merchandise you could possibly use would be gunpowder. Wilton pointed out that in wartime production of gunpowder was controlled by The Crown. You will not be granted a license to purchase: your name is already on a blacklist. You will not get a single grain in all of England. So now, is the game up? When they speak of you there is such hatred now. Before they laughed.
Delaney: They stopped laughing-that's good. That's a good thing, Godfrey.
Godfrey: James, for God's sake. The art of war: your motive, your strategy, your outcome. They can't kill you, but they will crucify your name: will crucify all those around you.
Delaney: But I don't keep anyone around me that doesn't deserve what they get.
Godfrey: Does that include me?
Delaney: Yes, that includes you. Only half a man.
Strange: We had a fucking agreement! Common cause. Fucking snakes! Who tipped you off?
Lackey: Anonymous note.
Strange: Delaney! He's turning London into his own private bear pit. And what are we? The bear? Or the dogs? Shit! And that fat pig-Prince Prinny, plays the fool so he can better play the game. I'll pop him. I swear to God I'll burst him like a pig's bladder! Get a message to Coop; tell him we withdraw our negotiators from the India talks.
Coop: My wife is a strange fish. I talk to her about my work when we sit up in bed at night. Her belief is that James Delaney is in league with Satan.
Lorna: I believe that to be true too.
Thorne [to Delaney]: It excites me: the thought of it. When I realize the woman beneath me is capable of what she did. Now I know the secret in her head, and it makes me so hard, and so angry. And she likes it. Since you came back, our fucking has become almost murderous. It exhausts us. I have this wicked, wicked thing beneath me, and it's my life long duty to punish her. It exhausts us both, beautiful exhaustion. And in the morning I read the Gazette, and she eats her toast, like a sweet little bird. I didn't come to sell you insurance Mr. Delaney. I came to thank you.
Strange: You do realize this whole business is about revenge.
Coop: And why would James Delaney hate the India so? What the hell did you do to him, Stuart? Always assume I just know.
Strange: Then know this. Delaney will as easily sell Nootka to the Americans, if they offer him the same monopoly.
Coop: Now there, the King and the Company may be able to find our common cause.
