The Best Tim McManus Quotes

Tim: Burr, I think it's important for you to know how things work around here.
Burr: I grew up in the ghetto, Pops died when I was nine. I had to quit school at the age of ten and support my family shining shoes, shooting craps, doing some of everything. They shipped me off to Vietnam, where I learned to kill small children and women. I've been in all kind of penitentiaries from Arizona to Alabama and back. I'm not saying this out of pride or out of shame, I'm just letting you know that I know exactly how things work around here.

Tim: You must think I'm an idiot. You want me to move Keller out of your pod and put Andrew Schillinger in?
Tobias: You're wondering if I'm going to harm the son of the man who double fucked me.
Tim: The thought had crossed my mind.

Burr: [Augustus Hill has just OD'd on drugs] So how's he doing?
Tim: [Grabbing Redding Angrily] You son of a bitch, Augustus' blood is swimming in heroin, you want to fucking tell me about that!
Tim: I don't know nothing about that! Just tell me how the fuck he is
Tim: He's dying, he's lying in a fucking hospital bed, dying.
Burr: So why the fuck are you sitting here trying to talk to me?
Tim: I want to know who gave him the drugs Redding!
Burr: McManus, I swear to you I don't know nothing about that!
Tim: Why the fuck should I believe you?
Burr: I'm getting old, I should've died a long time ago, but there's one thing I won't do and that's outlive that boy, now you go to him and do everything you can and I swear to you I'll find the motherfucker that gave him smack!
Tim: All right and when you do you bring him straight to me!
[Redding immediately searches for Poet]

Officer: What's the word on Busmalis?
Tim: Do you really care?
Officer: I wouldn't ask if I didn't.
Tim: You care, why? Because you're afraid that it'll look bad on your record? That you used excessive force?
Officer: I did not use excessive force.
Tim: The man almost died.
Officer: But he didn't.
Tim: Yeah, 'cause you knew when to let go. What's the motto? "Choke 'em 'til you smell shit"?... Nice tattoo.
Officer: Souvenir of a misspent youth.
Tim: Metzger, I know who you are; I know *what* you are.
Officer: All I am is a highly-trained, underpaid member of the Correctional Officer's Benevolent Association. But if I am what you think I am, you should tip-toe.
Tim: Is that a threat?
Officer: I'm merely reminding you who your friends are. Remember who you want standing next to you when one of these fucks comes after you with a knife.

Tim: I'm sorry Rebadow, it's your word against his. The word of a correctional officer against the word of an inmate... who is known to talk to god.

[the Governor's assistant has just been arrested]
Tim: [to the Governor] You're next, Devlin.

Augustus: [In Em City] Oz.
Tim: [In his office] Oz.
Tobias: [In the infirmary] Oz.
Vern: [In his Gen. Pop. cell] Oz.
Sister: [In the Gen. Pop. section] Oz.
Ryan: [In the guard booth of Em City] Oz.
Warden: [in front of fellow officers] Oz.
Miguel: [In Solitary] Oz.

Sister: [McManus has an engagement ring ready for Diane Whittlesey on the day she's scheduled to return from her two-week vacation in London with her daughter, but Peter Marie visits him at his office with some news] Well, you know, she and Didi were standing in front of Buckingham Palace and she got into a conversation with a guard.
Tim: I thought they didn't talk.
Sister: He was on break. Anyway, um, one thing led to another, and, um... they're going to get married.
Tim: [smiles, laughs] Right.
Sister: I'm serious.
Tim: [stops, looks at her, face slowly drops, the words sink in] She's getting married... to a *Bobby?*
Sister: No, no, not a Bobby, Tim. He's a guard. He guards the Queen!
Tim: [hollers] Yeah, well, then I can see how they've got a lot in fucking COMMON! Oh, FUCK! Jesus fucking Christ! Did she leave a number?
Sister: She doesn't want to talk to you.
Tim: Yeah? Well, I've got a hell of a lot I wanna say to her!
Sister: Which is why she doesn't wanna talk to you. She really feels very badly.
Tim: [sarcastically] Oh, really?
Sister: Now listen, Tim. Diane Whittlesey has not had an easy life. Poverty, spousal abuse, single motherhood, her mom dying after a very long illness. And just now on the phone, her voice - she sounded so happy.
Tim: Happy. Sure.
[slowly exhales and sits back at his desk]
Sister: If you need to talk...
Tim: What I need is a drink.
[pulls a bottle of whiskey out from his desk drawer]
Sister: Tim...
Tim: Don't worry, Sister. This is what guys who've been dumped do in order to move on.
[pours himself a glass and raises it in a toast]
Tim: Cheerio.
[downs it]

Tim: [McManus discovers that a CO Karl Metzger is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood] So before Metzger came to town, he lived in Montana where he was part of the White Supremacy Warriors.
Sister: You sure of this, Tim?
Tim: I got a friend who works in the FBI who verified it.
Warden: Even so, you can't fire a man for what he did 15 years ago. I need proof that he's in cahoots with Vern Schillinger, that he's responsible for what happened to Busmalis, Beecher, and the others.
Tim: Nobody will testify against Metzger.
Warden: Well, the union's not gonna let us do anything without evidence. He's also very popular with the other CO's. I don't need any more morale problems.
Tim: So we let him stay on board till maybe he kills somebody?
Warden: I'm afraid, we have no choice.
Tim: Even though he only thinks of you as a Nigger?
Warden: What did you say?
Tim: A Nigger.
Warden: If you're trying to piss me off, you're succeeding. I don't want Metzger in this building one minute longer than you do. But if I'm going to take him down, I'm gonna need ammunition.

[repeated line]
Tim: Get him the fuck out of here!

Father: [At the funeral of an African American CO Joseph Howard] Eternal rest grant unto him, Oh Lord, and let perpetual light shine down upon him. And now, Tim McManus would like to say a few words. Tim.
Tim: Joe loved to bet on the horses, and so, in honor of him, I would like to...
[singing]
Tim: Camp town races sing this song, doo-dah, doo-dah, Camp town racetrack's five miles long Oh, the doo-dah day.
[Blacks in Audience including Glynn begin to look at McManus with disgust]
Tim: Gonna run all night, Gonna run all day. Bet my money on a bobtail nag, Somebody bet on the bay.
Warden: [a scene later in the Warden's office] Come in.
Sister: Leo, we want to talk about Tim.
Warden: I have had all the discussion about Tim McManus I'm gonna have.
Sister: He's clearly in distress.
Warden: Yes.
Dr. Gloria Nathan: He needs help.
Warden: That's what I told him.
Sister: So, you've seen him?
Warden: He just left.
Dr. Gloria Nathan: We've been looking everywhere.
Warden: He just left.
Dr. Gloria Nathan: Well, where'd he go?
Warden: I have no idea.
Sister: Alright, we'll try him at home tonight.
Dr. Gloria Nathan: If not, we'll just see him here tomorrow.
Sister: Right.
Warden: I don't think so.
Dr. Gloria Nathan: Why not?
Warden: I just fired him. Good night.

[McManus has just unveiled the cage, plus some other reforms]
Chris: Excuse me, Mr. McManus sir. Just how big *is* your penis?
[laughter throughout Emerald City]
Tim: Very funny, Keller. Now *you* have the honor of being the first slug *in the cage*.
[Keller is locked in the cage]

Tim: [to Tobias] This is a prison, not an employment agency.

Tim: I may be blind but I'm not dumb.

Warden: Said is representing Vern Schillinger?
Tim: Didn't Nostradamus predict this? Doesn't this mean we're two steps closer to the end of the fucking world?

Ryan: McManus, you gotta see that I love her, man.
Tim: Love? What the fuck do you know about love?
Ryan: Well, what do you know, huh? What do any of us?
Tim: I know it's not a reason to commit murder.
Ryan: Yeah, well then, maybe you've never really been in love.