- Dr. Max DeBryn: [examining the corpse of the killer after Strange has been stabbed] Don't do anything by halves, your boys, do they?
- DCI Fred Thursday: [grimly] If a thing's worth doing... But I'd sooner he was alive. Morse?
- Dr. Max DeBryn: With the girl.
- DCI Fred Thursday: How is she?
- Dr. Max DeBryn: Physically, she's lost a little blood. There are bite-marks on her inner forearm, but, thankfully, there wasn't much there for him to get his teeth into. Mentally, I don't think she had far to fall.
- Dr. Max DeBryn: [intervening in the quarrel between Morse and Thursday] You want to carry on like that, you find yourself another pathologist! Am I understood?
- DS Endeavour Morse: Max, I'm sorry...
- Dr. Max DeBryn: [unexpectedly thundering] AM I UNDERSTOOD?
- Violetta Talenti: I'm afraid.
- DS Endeavour Morse: I can't help you.
- Violetta Talenti: Then no-one can.
- Mrs. Bright: You've looked after me so well this past year - these past years. You've always looked after me.
- CS Reginald Bright: And I always shall.
- DCI Fred Thursday: [angrily dismissing Morse's theories] If you want to run with this rubbish, do it on McNutt's meter!
- CS Reginald Bright: Morse meant well, of course - and his record speaks for itself. I'm not suggesting repercussions for him. Not for a moment, no. But we invested too much faith in his abilities, backed his instincts too wholeheartedly. We gave him his head; indulged him. And he was wrong.
- DS Jim Strange: [after the spiteful quarrel between Morse and Thursday and Max's angry departure] That's the face we want to show the world now, is it? Washing out our dirty smalls in front of respected friends and colleagues? God Almighty! What's the matter with you? Well, I hope you're both pleased with yourselves.
- DS Endeavour Morse: I'm a bagman, not a yes-man! I'm here to keep you on the straight and narrow and tell you when I think you're barking up the wrong tree. That is my job!
- Magdalena Byrne: Admit men into our women's college, you would admit the wolf inside the citadel! We cannot underestimate this - the barbarian is at the gate!
- Jenny Tate: He comes when I'm not looking. I can smell him first. Like a burning smell. Then I catch him, out of the corner of my eye. But if you turn too quick, he disappears. I know he's not there. He can't be. But he must be, mustn't he, if I can see him?
- DS Endeavour Morse: [introducing the Talentis to Thursday] This is Chief Inspector Thursday - this is Mr. and Mrs. Talenti.
- Ludo Talenti: [shaking hands with Thursday, all smiles] Ludo, please.
- DCI Fred Thursday: Ludo?
- Ludo Talenti: That's right.
- DCI Fred Thursday: What, like the game?
- Ludo Talenti: [laughing] It's short for Ludovico. But, yes, exactly that.
- DS Endeavour Morse: [discussing Frazil's theories about one of the "accidents"] But they had no reason to suppose it wasn't an accident?
- Dorothea Frazil: Well, I can't imagine they'd have paid up, otherwise.
- DS Endeavour Morse: Oh, why? Did she get much?
- Dorothea Frazil: He left her looked after. But it'd be a different story if it had been her who fell.
- DS Endeavour Morse: How's that?
- Dorothea Frazil: Their son had got into debt and she sold off her life policy without telling her husband.
- DS Endeavour Morse: Right. And if she'd gone off the balcony, Mr. Jones wouldn't have earned a thing.
- Dorothea Frazil: Not a sou.
- DCI Fred Thursday: [a ferocious quarrel has erupted between Thursday and Morse] You stand there, looking down your nose at everyone - you're no better than any of them!
- DS Endeavour Morse: I didn't say I was.
- DCI Fred Thursday: You didn't have to. It's the way you carry yourself. Nobody's good enough!
- DS Endeavour Morse: [looking meaningfully at Thursday] No, there was one person. But he lost his way.
- Ludo Talenti: [sneeringly, to Morse, about Violetta] You really don't have a clue, do you? She's a fraud, Morse. Every word she's ever told you was a lie. When I found her, she was fifteen, barefoot in the back streets of Naples. I've given her the world. You don't even know her real name.
- DCI Fred Thursday: [angrily, after Morse has suggested he get a transfer] If you want to be on your way, don't stay on my account.
- Violetta Talenti: It's Ludo you want. I can give him to you - and I will. But you have to give me twenty-four hours before you come after me.
- Dr. Max DeBryn: [examining the corpse of Bridget Mulcahy] Broken neck. There are wounds adjacent to the jugular. Bruising at the trauma site suggests the attacker sucked, or attempted to suck, her blood.