20 Best DI John River Quotes

Ira: I had an Aunt who used to talk to herself.
John: Did you like her?
Ira: She tried to strangle my Uncle Ralph.

Jackie: You're jealous.
John: 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: Is it so surprising that I might have had a boyfriend?
John: You have your arms around him. You're smiling and you have your arms around him.
Jackie: Didn't you ever wonder?
John: You didn't tell. I didn't ask.
Jackie: And you weren't ever curious?
John: [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: Then what? And you would have given it to me? If that had been true, then we would have... We would have...
John: We're born alone. We die alone.
Jackie: 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.

John: From the fortune cookie that River opens: "Do not go where the path may lead. Go where there is no path and leave a trail."

Chrissie: What were you thinking? You're not on the case!
John: It's the same car.
Chrissie: Well, we'll leave that to forensics, shall we? You see psychs in the morning, like I asked you. Rosa, 9 AM. Be early. She'll only say what everyone else says.
[softly]
Chrissie: You can't bring Stevie back.
Jackie: [as River walks away] What does she know?
John: [chuckling] Exactly. Exactly!
[as Stevie turns to follow, we see that she has a gaping hole in the back of her head, and River is actually talking to himself]

John: Mosquitos have 47 teeth.
Ira: How do they fit in such a tiny mouth?

Jackie: And how many points, do you think, in a glass of wine?
John: Five?
Jackie: Three.
[slurps her drink]
Jackie: Nicoise salad, Petrie Express. A bit of tuna, a bit of egg, a few beans. A bit of olive. 19 points.
John: 19?
Jackie: All in the dressing.

John: Madness can bring its own kind of clarity.

Ira: Revolver or Sgt. Pepper?
John: [softly] Sgt. Pepper.
Ira: [nodding] Agreed. I'll see you in the morning, then.
John: Yeah.
Ira: You'll be alright?
John: Yeah.
Jackie: [after Ira leaves River's apartment] Linda or Yoko?
John: Linda.
Jackie: 'Cause she's blonde?
John: [chuckling] No.
Jackie: [laughing] 'Cause she's blonde.
John: No!

John: If you're lonely when you're alone, you're in bad company.

[first lines]
Fast: Can I take your order?
Jackie: Hurry up.
[pauses]
Jackie: Burger, extra cheese, no onions.
John: Uh, burger, uh, cheese, onion.
Fast: Window number two, please.
Jackie: [scoffing] Muffed it.

John: Your questions. Yes I've taken medication before. No I've never disclosed this. Yes, Stevie helped me control my condition. No I've never been formally diagnosed. Yes, I'm aware this is a breach of police protocol. And when was the last time I spoke to a friend? I don't have any. The only one I have... had is dead, so... I'm a good officer. But in this world that's not enough. In this world, you have to be able to nod and smile and drink a pint, and say, "How was your day?" In this world no one can be different or strange or damaged. Or they lock you up. So what do I do know?
Rosa: You keep talking.

[first lines]
Christopher: [appearing in his apartment] Can't sleep? Do you know what does that to you? What would I shoot at people for? Some of them are my best customers.
John: Then who did?
John: [now to an empty apartment] Then who did?

John: The person to fear the most, is the one to whom you gave all your trust.

Jackie: Oi. Last holiday you took, you called me with heat stroke. From Scotland.
John: Told you I hate holidays.
Jackie: So get back to work, then. We made a promise to Erin's mother.

Chrissie: River, Detective Sergeant King.
Ira: Ira.
John: [shaking his hand] Ira. From the Hebrew, meaning watchful or full-grown.
Ira: [joking] Father Muslim, mother Jewish. I'm the original Gaza Strip.

John: [noticing photo near victim's desk] Fishing... A solitary sport...
Jordy: I like my own company.
John: Me too. You don't have to pretend when you're on your own.
[looks up but Merton is not really there]

John: You talk too much.
Ira: If I don't talk, then we have nothing but air.

Jackie: Rosa. That's a good name for a psychiatrist. I thought it went quite well.
[shaking her head]
Jackie: There's stuff you could have said. How long we've worked together, when we met, how I bug the shit out of you, how I won't give you any rest. Just stuff, stuff.
John: What are her credentials, references? Where does she come from, anyway?
Jackie: She done nine years with the Met and six years in Broadmoor.

Rosa: Even if you were just colleagues, there was love, perhaps?
John: [laughs] Love. I've been trying to remember what that feels like, to be in love. It's been a while. For whatever reason, it has passed me by. The closest I got felt like food poisoning.
[Rosa smiles]
John: In books and films and plays, it's always so compelling, so complex. There should be more than one word for love. I've seen love that kills and I've seen love that redeems. I've seen love that believes in the guilty and love that saves the bereaved. What we will do for love. Die for it, even.

Erin: Morning.
[Her reflection appears in the mirror beside River's. She brushes her teeth as he brushes his]
Erin: Do you know your teeth are the last thing to rot, after bones, and hair, and skin?
John: George Washington wore hippopotamus teeth.
Erin: You've run out of Shreddies again.