The Best Alfred Borden Quotes

Alfred: The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.

Sarah: Alfred, I can't live like this!
Alfred: Well, what do you want from me?
Sarah: I want... I want you to be honest with me. No tricks, no lies, no secrets.
[pause]
Sarah: Do you... do you love me?
Alfred: Not today. No.

[after showing a little boy how to do a coin trick]
Alfred: Never show anyone. They'll beg you and they'll flatter you for the secret, but as soon as you give it up... you'll be nothing to them.

Alfred: Simple maybe, but not easy.

Alfred: We both had half of a full life, which was somehow enough for us. But not for them.

Olivia: You married her. You had a child with her.
Alfred: Yes. Part of me did. But the other part... the other part didn't. The part that found you, the part that's sitting here right now.
Olivia: You could be in some other cafe saying the same thing about me right now. It's inhuman to be so cold.

Alfred: So... we go alone now. Both of us. Only I don't have as far to go as you. Go. You were right, I should have left him to his damn trick. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for a lot of things. I'm sorry about Sarah. I didn't mean to hurt her... I didn't. You go and live your life in full now, all right? You live for both of us.
Fallon: Goodbye.

Alfred: He's progressive, he's predictable, he's boring. I mean, Milton's got success, whatever that means, and now he's scared, he won't take any risks at all. I mean, he's squandering the goodwill of the audience with these tired, second-rate tricks...
Robert: They're all favorites, please...
Alfred: Favorites? Come on, give me something fresh, he wont even try a bloody bullet catch!
Cutter: A bullet catch is suicide, all it takes is some smart-ass volunteer to put a button in the barrel...
Alfred: Fine, use a plant!
Robert: You can't use plants for every trick!
Julia: There'll be no seats left for the punters!
[laughs]
Alfred: Fine, no bullet catch, whatever, but the point is... a real magician tries to invent something new, that other magicians are gonna scratch their heads over, you know?
Cutter: Right, then you sell it to him for a small fortune?
Alfred: All right...
Cutter: I suppose you have such a trick?
Alfred: Actually, I do.

[In reference to a bird from a trick]
Alfred: See? He's fine!
Boy: But where's his brother?

Alfred: I love you.
Sarah: You mean it today.
Alfred: Of course.
Sarah: It just makes it so much harder when you don't.

Olivia: [referring to Angier] He wants me to come work for you and steal your secrets.
Alfred: What does he need my secrets for? His trick is top-notch. He vanishes, and then he reappears instantly on the other side of the stage - mute, overweight, and unless I'm mistaken, very drunk. It's astonishing, how does he do it?

Sarah: No more lies. No more secrets.
Alfred: Secrets are my life.

Alfred: Everything's going to be alright, because I love you very much.
Sarah: Say it again.
Alfred: I love you.
Sarah: Not today.
Alfred: What do you mean?
Sarah: Well some days it's not true. Maybe today you're more in love with magic. I like being able to tell the difference, it makes the days it is true mean something.

[first lines]
Alfred: Are you watching closely?

[repeated line]
Alfred: Are you watching closely?

[Borden shoots Angier in the waist, picking up the red rubber ball, when the two reveal their prestige to one another]
Robert: A brother... a twin. You were Fallon... the whole time?
Alfred: No. We were both Fallon. And we were both Borden.
Robert: [panting] Were you - were you the one who went into the box or the one who came back out?
Alfred: We took turns. The trick is where we would swap.
[we see the flashback of both twins performing The Transported Man]
Robert: [breathing heavily] Cutter knew. Cutter knew. But I told him it was too simple, too easy.
Alfred: No... simple, maybe, but not easy. There's nothing easy about two men sharing one life.
[we see the flashback showing one of the twins cutting the other twins' fingers off]
Robert: Wh-What about Olivia? And your wife?
Alfred: We each loved one of them.
[we see the flashback of both lovers]
Alfred: I loved Sarah. He loved Olivia. We each had half a full life, really, which was enough for us. Just... but not for them. You see, sacrifice, Robert - that's the price of a good trick. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?
Robert: [labored breathing] I've - I've made sacrifices.
[wheezing]
Robert: Yes.
Alfred: It takes nothing to steal another man's work.
Robert: It takes everything.
[we see the flashback of Angier killing the clone of himself while doing The Real Transported Man trick]
Robert: It took courage... it took courage to climb into that machine every night... not knowing... if I'd be the man in the box... or the prestige. Do you want - want to see. What it cost me? Y-you didn't see where you are, did you? Look. Look
Alfred: Look here... you went halfway around the world. You spent a fortune. You did terrible things... really terrible things, Robert. And all for nothing.
Robert: For nothing?
Alfred: Yeah.
Robert: You never understood... why we did this? The audience knows the truth - the world is simple... and miserable... solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder. And then you... then you got to see something very special. You really don't know? It was... it was the look on their faces.
[Angier wheezes and exhales, collapsing dead, and Borden walks out of the theatre alone]

Alfred: [realizes Fallon's buried after trading him back] Alive?
Robert: How fast can you dig?

Officer: Do you have anything to say?
Alfred: Abracadabra.

Alfred: You went half way around the world, you spent a fortune, you did terrible things - really terrible things, Robert, and all for nothing.
Robert: For nothing?
Alfred: Yeah
Robert: You never understood why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you... then you got to see something really special. You really don't know? It was... it was the look on their faces...

Alfred: Does he enjoy taking his bows under the stage?

Alfred: See, sacrifice, Robert. That's the price of a good trick. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?