Quotes / Professional Killer

Comic Books

Matthew Risman: You have the eyes of a killer, girl. Not like Wolverine. No, he's just an animal. But you... you were bred for murder. And right now, you're thinking of eleven different ways to kill me, aren't you?
X-23: No — twenty-seven.

— X-Force

"My name's Tommy Monaghan and I kill people for money. It's a living."

— Tommy Monaghan, Hitman (1993)

"A contract is a contract. Reasons, motivations, goals—everything that makes someone want to off someone else—that's none of my business. Not my problem. The very essence of my job boils down to this: I'm not a detective. Not your priest, not your conscience, not a vigilante. I don't get paid to judge, to think, to have an opinion. Strategy isn't my department. All I do is provide a service. I solve a very specific problem. The choices I make are all practical, logistical. I get paid for being effective and discreet. I get paid to not give a fuck. And I think, in the end, for all these reasons... that's why I love my job."

—The Killer, The Killer

Film — Live-Action

Max: You just met him once and you kill him like that?!
Vincent: What, I should only kill people after I get to know them?

— Collateral

Joker: It's simple: We, uh, kill the Batman.
Salvatore Maroni: If it's so "simple", why haven't you done it already?
Joker: If you're good at something, never do it for free.

— The Dark Knight

Debi: You're a psychopath.
Martin: No, no. Psychopaths kill for no reason. I kill for money. It's a job. That didn't come out right.

— Grosse Pointe Blank

Francisco Scaramanga: When I was a boy, I was brought up in a circus. My only real friend was a huge, magnificent African bull elephant. One day, his handler mistreated him and he went berserk. Bleeding, dying, he came and found me, stood on one leg, his best trick, picked me up and put me on his back. The drunken handler came along and emptied his gun into his eye, I emptied my stage pistol into his!
James Bond: An eye for an eye.
Scaramanga: You see, Mr. Bond, I always thought I loved animals. Then I discovered that I enjoyed killing people even more.

— The Man with the Golden Gun

Bond: I help people with problems.
Sanchez: Problem solver.
Bond: More of a problem eliminator.

— Licence to Kill, paraphrased from Ian Fleming's The Man with the Golden Gun

Psychologist: Sunlight?
Bond: Swim.
Psychologist: Moonlight?
Bond: Dance.
Psychiatrist: Murder?
Bond: Employment.

— Word association test, Skyfall

Madeleine Swann: I see you left this final question blank. What is your occupation?
Bond: Well, that's not the sort of thing that looks good on a form.
Madeleine: And why is that?
Bond: I kill people.

— Spectre

"A sure and steady hand did this. This ain't no squirrelly amateur. This is the work of a salty dog. You can tell by the cleanliness of the carnage. Now, a kill-crazy rampage though it may be, all the colors are kept within the lines."

— Sheriff Earl McGraw, Kill Bill Pt. 1

"They cry, they plead, they beg, they piss themselves, they cry for their mothers. It gets embarrassing. I like to kill 'em softly. From a distance."

— Jackie Cogan, Killing Them Softly

"Murder is only killing without a license."

— Arthur Bishop, The Mechanic (1972)

"I do assignments, designated targets. Some jobs need to look like accidents. Others must cast suspicion on someone else. A select few need to send a clear message. Pulling a trigger is easy. The best jobs are the ones nobody even knows you were there."

— Arthur Bishop, The Mechanic (2011)

"The rifle is the first weapon you learn how to use, because it lets you keep your distance from the client. The closer you get to being a pro, the closer you can get to the client. The knife, for example, is the last thing you learn."

— Léon, The Professional

"I don't interest myself in 'why'. I think more often in terms of 'when'; sometimes 'where'; always 'how much'."

— Joubert, Three Days of the Condor

Dragon: Please! That is a distasteful phrase.
Hemlock: Call it what you want; wet work, terminations, sanction. It all adds up to the same thing. Killing.
Dragon: It is what you do best.

— The Eiger Sanction

"The silencer makes a whisper of the gunshot. I hold her close until she's gone. I'll never know what she was running from. I'll cash her check in the morning."

— The Salesman, Sin City

"Your father and I used him three times in twenty years, only when things got totally fucked. Whenever we needed one of our own bumped off, we called this guy in. He had a thing for clipping wiseguys, but only one rule: No women, no kids. Believe me, kid, you don't want this guy unless you are one hundred percent sure you need him. He's a fucking monster."

— Augustus DiStephano on Il Duce, The Boondock Saints

Gelt: I settle disputes... very quickly. I'm very good at it. I don't care who I work for, or with. That's why I've collected a lot of enemies along the way.
Shad: You kill... for pay?
Gelt: I have no home, no family, no ideals. What else would I kill for?
Shad: Pleasure?
Gelt: No. It's strictly business with me.

— Battle Beyond the Stars

"Think of it as a hobby. Something you do to relax. You're an 'assassination enthusiast'."

— Jim Byrd, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind

"I've got your name on a piece of paper in my pocket. That's all that matters."

— Resnick, The Equalizer 2

Literature

"We do not murder. We do not execute. We do not massacre. We never, you may be very certain, we never torture. We have no truck with crimes of passion or hatred or pointless gain. We do not do it for a delight in inhumation, or to feed some secret inner need, or for petty advantage or for some cause or belief; I tell you, gentlemen, that all these reasons are in the highest degree suspect. Look into the face of a man who will kill you for a belief and your nostrils will snuff up the scent of abomination. Hear a speech declaring a holy war and, I assure you, your ears should catch the click of evil's scales and the dragging of its monstrous tail over the purity of the language.

No, we do it for the money. And, because we above all must know the value of a human life, we do it for a great deal of money. There can be few cleaner motives, so shorn of all pretence. Nil mortifi, sine lucre. Remember. No killing without payment.

And always give a receipt."

— Dr. Cruces of the Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild, Pyramids

"I'm not a good person or a bad person. I'm just here to kill things."

— Vin, The Well of Ascension

If there was still such a thing as income tax, then every year when Vic filled out his 1040 form he would put down, as his occupation, "sniper".

— Snow Crash

"Tell me, Bronn. If I told you to kill a babe... an infant girl, say, still at her mother's breast... would you do it? Without question?"

"Without question? No." The sellsword rubbed thumb and forefinger together. "I'd ask how much."

— A Song of Ice and Fire

"A knight's a sword with a horse. The rest, the vows and the sacred oils and the lady's favors, they're silk ribbons tied round the sword. Maybe the sword's prettier with ribbons hanging off it, but it will kill you just as dead."

— Sandor Clegane, A Song of Ice and Fire

"A specialist in pulling a trigger? You mean...you don't know how to pull a trigger? Four years in the army, you've never learned to pull a trigger? Trained to do a hit? Who's trained for that? You know a place in Israel they train people for it? It's news to me. How do you train people to do a hit anyway? Practice on dogs first, then say to them, see that old guy crossing Dizengoff Street, now you go ahead and shoot him? We train people to use a gun. We train soldiers to do commando work, to plant a bomb, to use a knife, anything. The way you have been trained. Be we don't train anybody to do a hit. We have no experts in that."

— Ephraim, Vengeance by George Jonas.

Bradleigh said with unusual heat, "It's a crazy mythology we've created about the Mob. The cold professionals, the never-miss hitmen. All they know is triggers and bombs. More often than not they can't even handle the simplest job without screwing it up."

— Recoil by Brian Garfield

Decker was an assassin. And he was not just some potbellied CIA reject with contacts to peddle. His skills, courage, and cold-blooded efficiency had been tested in the marketplace. He was a solid product, top of the line. He looked, dressed, talked, and acted like a responsible, dependable, respectable corporate killer. If IBM ever hired a staff assassin, he would be a man much like Michael Decker.

— The Underground Empire by James Mills

Live-Action TV

Avon: I don't know who he is, how old he is, what he looks like, or where he comes from, but I do know what he does.
Tarrant: And what's that?
Avon: He kills people, for a great deal of money.

— Blake's 7, "Assassin"

"A hitman is like a plumber, a dentist or a mechanic: everybody is always looking for a good one."

— Michael, Burn Notice, "Identity"

"You wanted to know what I do for a living. I kill people. There's always one who wields the Sword of Damocles, one self-appointed god. That's me, Alyson. That's me."

— Robert McCall, The Equalizer, "Nightscape"

"I am not a murderer. Murder is petty, it's thuggish. Assassination is a tool, a political statement. I am paid to help others make their statements."

— The Chameleon, The Invisible Man

"The quiet type. He spends words like they were ten bucks a syllable. 'Course, he don't have to say much; before he turned 21, he turned up more hits than Hank Aaron."

— Sgt. Geno Polucci, Kojak, "The Chinatown Murders"

"I killed mothers with their babies. I've killed great philosophers, proud young warriors, and revolutionaries. I've killed the evil, the good, the intelligent, the weak, and the beautiful. I have done this in the service of His Divine Shadow and his predecessors, and I have never once shown any mercy."

— Kai, Lexx

"You know how much they paid me to kill a man in Kings Landing? Seven silvers. They told me a man's name and that man never saw daylight again; none of those cocksuckers got away from me."

— Karl Tanner, Game of Thrones, "Oathkeeper"

Music

He's got the power — he's like a god
But he's a devil of flesh and blood
A .45 is his religion, code of silence his belief

— Accept, "Sick, Dirty and Mean"

The Liquidator
Will soon be coming around
You won't feel safer
Until you get out of town
He's an eraser
He'll rub you out like a light
And for a chaser
He'll kiss your woman good-night

— Shirley Bassey, theme song for The Liquidator (1965)

And then I spend your ransom money
But still I keep your sheep
I peel the mask you're wearing
And then rob you of your sleep, rob you of your sleep
I choose to steal what you choose to show
And don't you know
I'm making a career of evil

— Blue Öyster Cult, "Career of Evil"

Yours is not to ask why
Yours is to do and die

— KMFDM, "Professional Killer"^note Misquoting Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade"

I do the "getting rid of", don't tell me why
Don't need to hear the truth, don't need the lies
Now pay me quickly, and now we're through
It brings me great pleasure to say my next job is you!

— MEGADETH, "Killing Is My Business"

Concrete shoes...
Cyanide...
TNT! (Done dirt cheap)
Neck ties...
Contracts...
High voltage! (Done dirt cheap)

— AC/DC, "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"

Mythology and Religion

Cursed be he who taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, "Amen."

— Deuteronomy 27:25, King James Bible (Cambridge Edition)

Video Games

"The numbing cold of the broken night had followed me in. Upstairs, The Trio tangoed down the Manor halls to the silent rhythm of their murderous hearts, the blood of their victims rust on their lips."

— Max Payne, "Angel of Death"

"This ain't no fuckin' P.I.! This is a ghost! This is a myth! This is a fuckin' HITMAN!"

— Blake Dexter, Hitman: Absolution, "Terminus"

"Ya can't spell assassin without 'sin' — and twice the ass!"

— Deadpool, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

"Sniping's a good job, mate. It's challenging work, out of doors. I guarantee you'll not go hungry, 'cause at the end of the day, 'long as there's two people left on the planet, someone is gonna want someone dead."

— The Sniper, Team Fortress 2

"I'm not a 'crazed gunman', Dad, I'm an assassin! Well the 'difference' bein', one is a job, and the other's mental sickness!"

— The Sniper on the phone with his father, Team Fortress 2, "Meet the Sniper"

An independent mercenary who bargained his way into an effortless entry to Rubicon, having anticipated the extraplanetary corporations' forays well before they made their move.
A specialist in corporate wetwork, Coldcall "removes" undesirable elements on the behalf of those who do not wish to be seen getting their hands dirty.
Quick to identify a fellow assassin, he claims that "you can smell a real killer right through their AC."

— Coldcall's Arena profile, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

Web Video

Deadpool: What? I kill people. It's a perfectly legitimate business.
Green Goblin: Killing's not "legitimate"!
Deadpool: It's a business.

— I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC

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