K.C. Kolowski Season 3 Quotes

CHINA BEACH QUOTE ARCHIVE: K.C. KOLOWSKI SEASON 3 QUOTES

 

 

3.01 The Unquiet Earth

Boonie (surveying the damage to K.C’s quarters): “Could be worse.”
K.C.: “Yeah, I needed a good housecleaning.”

Boonie: “This all could fall down on you, you know.”
K.C.: “I’m not Chicken Little.”
Boonie: “What? You like that open air feeling, huh?”
K.C.: “Yeah. I get claustrophobic.”
Boonie: “You could have been killed.”
K.C.: “I love close calls.”

K.C.: “Well, I’m not sure our dates can will until ’73 for you to put a new face on.”
McMurphy: “Dates?”
K.C.: “Yeah. Didn’t you get your invitation?”
McMurphy: “The gold or the silver embossed one?”
K.C.: “The pleasure of your company is required at Da Nang Air Force Base, 1900 hours, by Lt. Colonel Strickland Roberts. That one.”
McMurphy: “Railroad Roberts?!”
K.C.: “He of the enormous caboose.”
McMurphy: “Oh, K.C. The man has cut a swath through Southeast Asia so wide he should be licensed by International Harvester.”
K.C.: “Well, he specifically asked for you.”
McMurphy: “Come on!”
K.C.: “All right. He asked for me, but he insisted I bring company.”
McMurphy: “There’s a lot of other company around.”
K.C.: “I couldn’t find anybody else.”
McMurphy: “Thanks a lot.”
K.C.: “Look, you don’t have to ride ‘the railroad’. Just let him blow his whistle for a couple of hours.”
McMurphy: “Pass. I’ve had enough of arrogant, self-important males for one day.”
K.C.: “Hmmm. Sounds to me like a perfect evening for revenge. Besides, you owe me.”
McMurphy: “You owe me.”
K.C.: “You’re not going to get away with that this time.”
McMurphy: “Won’t be any French doctors there?”
K.C.: “Guaranteed. Let’s go. The jeep waits.”
McMurphy: “I just got out of a jeep!”
K.C.: (laughs) “Always said you lived in the fast lane.”

K.C. and McMurphy (while attempting to use the restroom in the jungle):
McMurphy: “K.C.?”
K.C.: “Yeah?”
McMurphy: “How are you doing?”
K.C.: “This is it! Heaven!”

K.C.: “There’s a way out of this. There’s a way out of everything. Just find out what they want and give it to them. That’s all.”

McMurphy: “An operation that I am incapable of doing, with equipment that’s insufficient, under conditions that are beyond belief.”
K.C.: “I like your optimism.”
McMurphy: “Go to Hell.”
K.C.: “Can’t be a long trip.”

K.C. (looking at a guy pedaling a bicycle): “What is this guy doing?”
Captor: “He’s the power to our generator.”
K.C.: “Let’s hope he doesn’t get a flat.”

Captor: “She’s of no use.”
McMurphy: “I won’t operate without her.”
K.C.: “Hey, I can take care of myself.”
McMurphy: “I don’t doubt that.”
K.C.: “Then I’ll shut up.”

McMurphy: “So, why did you try to escape?”
K.C.: “Well, I might not be afraid of death, but I’m terrified of dying.”

K.C.: “Black sleep. That’s what I decided death was. When I was a kid, lying in my bed, waiting for my dad to come home, I used to wonder what it felt like to die in your sleep. Did it hurt? Did you even know it had happened? Black sleep didn’t seem so bad. It doesn’t seem so bad when you’re buried alive.”

K.C.: “So, you’re a good Catholic. You think it’s too late for me to convert?”
McMurphy: “There’s no such thing as a good Catholic.”

McMurphy: “The old man needs a transfusion.”
K.C.: “So?”
McMurphy: “I told them you were Type O.”
K.C.: “No way. Not for that bastard.”
McMurphy: “You afraid of needles? It’s a way to stay alive.”
K.C.: “You could have bartered with them, McMurphy. Traded it for our freedom. Our lives.”
McMurphy: “Find out what they want and give it to them, right?”
K.C.: “Right!”
McMurphy: “Wrong! They’re not salesmen. Everything doesn’t have a price for them. Down here they control the supply and demand. They demand, we supply. It’s that simple!”
K.C.: “Oh and we just trust this is going to make a difference, huh?”
McMurphy: “No, they’ll kill us anyway…”
K.C.: “So why do it? Why even tell them about my blood?”
McMurphy: “Because I’m stupid. Because it’s the right thing to do. Take your pick.”
K.C.: “I pick stupid!”
McMurphy: “Both answers would be graded as correct.”
K.C.: “God, you’re a pain in the ass, McMurphy.”

3.02 Skin Deep

K.C. (discussing the one time she entered a beauty pageant): “They gave the crown to the town virgin. Show much for the ‘Show Me’ state.”
(Her companion starts snoring.)
K.C.: “That’s when I got my first hint of exactly what I could expect from you big boys.”

McMurphy: “Hey! You owe me one.”
K.C.: “No, I don’t. You owe me one. (pause) Don’t you?”
McMurphy: “Don’t tell me we’ve lost track?”

K.C.: “I don’t do hospitals, bad for business. I don’t do enlisted men, bad for business. And I don’t do favors. Clear?”
McMurphy: “Completely clear.”
K.C.: “Good.”
McMurphy: “I wouldn’t dream of asking you for a favor.”
K.C.: “Good.”
McMurphy: “What are your rates?”
K.C.: “Sorry?”
McMurphy: “How much do you charge an hour? I’ll hire you.”
K.C.: “Is the the part where I’m supposed to be shamed into doing the right thing? Is this the guilt trip, Sister Colleen? Sorry. I missed a lot of the catechism. This will buy you fifteen minutes.”
McMurphy: “Great! I’ll take it in three five-minute sessions.”

K.C. (giving Holly a sarcastic response about why she won’t do the pageant): “Oh, I don’t compete. Unless you’re considering me for Miss Congeniality.”

K.C. (to Gaspar): “Well, you’d have to do a whole lot more than wire my jaw and tie my hands to keep a cigarette out of my mouth.”

Gaspar: “What are you?”
K.C.: “What do you think I am?”
Gaspar: “You’re a hooker, my best friends in country.”

K.C. (to Gaspar when he tells her to go away but to leave her lighter so he can burn himself): “No from my hands, baby. You can do the job yourself.”

K.C. (to Gaspar while they’re talking on a bridge): “Hey, don’t get any ideas up here, all right. It’s not the Golden Gate. It’s not much of a fall.”

Gaspar: “Your job is to lie to men. I’m sure you’re very good at it.”
K.C.: “I don’t lie to myself.”

K.C. (to Gaspar): “All right. So you’re useless. You’re dead weight. Don’t drag somebody else down to prove it, all right?”

K.C. (to Gaspar): “Look, you want one of the services I have to offer, make an appointment. Lifesaving is not on my list.”

K.C.: “The job’s finished. Clean slate. Don’t ever do that to me again.”
McMurphy: “Just in time for my soft shoe.”
K.C.: “Hey! You want to save the huddled masses yearning to screw you up, go ahead. You can do the job without letting it get to you. You can afford it. I know what happens to me when these losers latch on and I’m not about to be black and blue again. You think I limit my clientele because I’m a snob? (laughs) I avoid the filth because I was stuck in it way too long.”
McMurphy: “You don’t think they get to me? I see something, like one of my guys out in the audience, trying to clap the hand he doesn’t have anymore. I don’t think I can take it. But I’ll tell you what you do, and I hate to admit it, just like you hate to admit it. You give them something. You’re human. It’s what it is, no matter how small you try to carve it. It’s what people do for each other.”

K.C. (to Gaspar when he grabs her and threatens to disfigure her): “Then do it! Go on! Be a man. Wall around in yourself until you can find somebody else to take it out on. Come on. Do it! Hey Gaspar, what’s the matter? Do it right. Do this whole two-bit business, on this two-bit base, on this whole two-bit stinking country! Get rid of the lie that I’m ever going to get off my back! Get rid of it!”

3.03 Dear China Beach

Beckett (talking about a drunken McMurphy trying to go home): “I think she’ll make it.”
K.C.: “Not a chance.”

3.04 Who’s Happy Now?

K.C. (to the Colonel, not realizing that he’s dead): “If you plan on sticking around, Buster, I think we’d better pace ourselves. That’s a compliment, Colonel. Feel free to return it.”

K.C.: “Be careful, will you? I got a good deal on that bed. Oh, what are you looking at me like that for? It’s not my fault the brass had a bum ticker.”
Hyers: “You sure there aren’t any keys?”
K.C.: “This is not my natural decor, Hyers.”
Hyers: “Okay, okay. Don’t get edgy.”
K.C.: “Don’t get edgy? Don’t get edgy?! A full, dead colonel is sitting in my chaise and you’re telling me not to get edgy?”
Boonie: “A full, dead handcuffed colonel, with sunglasses.”
Hyers: “Well, what are we going to do now?”
Boonie: “I don’t know. What do you think?”
Hyers: “I don’t know! That’s why I asked you. What do you think?”
Boonie: “I don’t know.” (To K.C.): “What do you think?”
K.C.: “What do I think? I think we’re never going to win this war!”

K.C.: “Hailstones the size of golf balls, tennis balls, basketballs…”

3.05 Independence Day

Beckett (referring to the morgue): “You can’t be in here.”
K.C.: “It’s imminent domain. We came. We saw a dry place. We conquered.”

McMurphy: “I can’t wear this. This is a declaration of war.”
K.C.: “Isn’t that the point?”

K.C.: “If you start to argue, just change the subject to sex. It works every time.”

K.C. (to Beckett when he rants about black men and the vote): “You think democracy makes America? It’s capitalism. Cash. That’s what makes America hum and that’s why I love it. What other country on God’s Earth lets a poor girl with a tenth grade education make a decent buck and get out of the sewer she was born into, huh? If my grandfather had stayed in Poland, I’d be harvesting beets right now, eating black bread and raw onions. We’re both niggers.”

K.C.: “I believe in the U.S. of A. Uncle Sam, Uncle Hamilton, Uncle Jackson, Uncle Abe, Uncle George. I have a chance. In America, a poor girl can be a queen.”

3.06 Ghosts

McMurphy: “Hey, did you ever save the hair after a haircut when you were a kid and put it in a locket for your grandma after?”
K.C.: “I never save anything.”

McMurphy (looking through the Koloski estate box): “Looks like he kept some of your old junk too.”
K.C.: “I know what he kept of mine, and it can’t be sent back in a box.”

K.C.: “What makes you think a girl is sitting around waiting for a Cracker Jack prize?”
Beckett: “Well, her man’s gone off to war.”
K.C.: “Gone is the operative word here. You can bet she’s found somebody else to warm his side of the bed by now.”
Beckett: “Maybe that’s what you would do…”
K.C.: “Men and their egos. It just never occurs to you that you’re replaceable.”
Beckett: “Do you know something I don’t?”
K.C.: “God, I hope so.”

Beckett: “I have a responsibility here to tie up loose ends.”
K.C.: “Let me fill you in on something, okay? Once you’re dead, it doesn’t matter.”
Beckett: “You never let yourself care enough to get to the hard part.”
K.C.: “The hard part? The hard part is staying alive, taking what comes next, even when it hits you blind side. Anything from anywhere can come back in your face and all because a romantic like you wants to tie up loose ends that ought to be left untied.”

K.C.: “How do you know when someone’s drowning?”
McMurphy: “They start screaming, waving their arms and their head keeps going under.”
K.C.: “You ever see a person drown?”
McMurphy: “Well, no. Yes! In the movies.”
K.C. (laughs): “All right. So you probably think the whole world lights up a cigarette after sex too.”
McMurphy: “Don’t they?”
K.C.: “People think it’s a way to bask in the afterglow. I think it’s a way to pretend it never happened.”
McMurphy: “I tried it once.”
K.C.: “Sex?”
McMurphy: “Smoking.”
K.C.: “Oh.”
McMurphy: “Sophomore year. My boyfriend thought it was cool.”
K.C.: “Every guy you’re with changes you. Every time, you lose a little bit more of yourself.”
McMurphy: “I think that every man you love adds something to you. But then again, I’ve only been in love with three men, and one of them was my father so he doesn’t really count.”
K.C.: “Wrong.”
McMurphy: “In many ways he hurt me more than any man ever will, but when he died, I stopped blaming him, giving him credit for who I am.”
K.C.: “I would have liked to have been there when the old man died. Then I could have danced on his grave.”
McMurphy: “You gotta forgive him, K.C.”
K.C.: “He doesn’t deserve it.”
McMurphy: “But you do.”

K.C.: “Kid in the middle of a war zone. That’s rough. Well, I guess a lot of kids grow up in a war zone one way or another.”
Dodger: “I’m watching out for him, protecting him.”
K.C.: “With what? With that?” (points at his gun)
Dodger: “With whatever I can.”
K.C.: “And what happens when this is over?”
Dodger: “I take him home.”
K.C.: “Well, they’re not going to let you. Besides, you go back to an angry world yourself, screwed up from everything you’ve seen here, and every time you see that kid, it’s going to be a reminder. A man hates life and how it’s ripped him off, and he looks around and he says the world sucks, and I’m going to make them pay. Well, you know who pays? The kid pays. You want to protect him? Protect him from yourself.”
Dodger: “I will.”

3.07 With A Little Help From My Friends

Holly: “I can’t believe those guys.”
K.C.: “I can’t believe you.
Holly: “You know Hong would be great.”
K.C.: “No. I know she gives a mean shampoo and she sweeps up the hair trimmings when I remind her. I wouldn’t pretend to know her, especially when I couldn’t even get her name straight. Hong Chi.
Holly: “Her name is Hong Chi.”
K.C.: “And what makes you think that?”
Holly: “That’s what we call her.”
K.C.: “Chi isn’t a name. It’s like saying Miss or Sister or Hey You. I wouldn’t have any idea what Hong’s full name is. You might need it if you’re looking for a pen pal when the war is over.”

3.08 China Men

McMurphy (during a game of 20 Questions): “Animal, vegetable or mineral?”
K.C.: “Animal.”
McMurphy: “Warm blooded?”
K.C.: “Ummm, most of the time.”
McMurphy: “What kind of answer is that?”
K.C.: “Just keep guessing.”
McMurphy: “Do you have fur?”
K.C.: “You could say that. Yeah.”
McMurphy: “Do you hunt? Do you kill things to eat?”
K.C.: “Yes.”
McMurphy: “You’re a water buffalo.”
K.C.: “No. Give up?”
McMurphy: “I never give up. Can I find you at the zoo?”
K.C.: “You could find me behind bars.”
McMurphy: “I don’t think you’re playing fair.”
K.C.: “I’m not playing fair?! You’re the one who’s always picking these obscure medical instruments. I never know what you are.”
McMurphy: “Do you live by day or night?”
K.C.: “Both. That’s two questions.”
McMurphy: “You’re cheating.”
K.C.: “I am not cheating!”
McMurphy: “Have I ever seen one of these things up close?”
K.C.: “Yes. Everyday.”
McMurphy: “At China Beach?”
K.C.: “Yes.”
McMurphy: “Do I ever see these animals on a leash?”
K.C.: “I have. You haven’t.”
McMurphy: “A dog.”
K.C.: “No, no. Five left. Give?”
McMurphy: “You’re an animal. You have fur. You live by day and night. You kill things. I’ve seen you at China Beach. You’re not a water buffalo. You’re a….mongoose.”
K.C.: “Is that a question?”
McMurphy: “No. I’m just thinking out loud. Are you a mongoose?”
K.C.: “No.”
McMurphy: “A cat?”
K.C.: “No.”
McMurphy: “Rat? Monkey?”
K.C.: “One left. I can’t believe you’re not going to get this.”
McMurphy (thinks for a few seconds, then smiles): “Men.”
(They both laugh.)

3.09 How to Stay Alive in Vietnam (1)

K.C.: “All right. You want to hear a joke? What do LBJ and my old boyfriend have in common? The lying bastards both promised to get out. Well, some you win, some you lose. Too bad. Me, I like to pretend I’ve got everything knocked. And what’s so wrong with having it all just the way you want it? Unless it never happens that way.”

3.10 How to Stay Alive in Vietnam (2)

K.C.: “What’s that book you’re reading?”
Lila: “It’s a play actually. Lysistrata by Aristophanes.
K.C.: “Sounds Greek to me.”
Lila: “The women of Athens go on strike. No sexual favors until their husbands agree to stop fighting the Spartans.”
K.C.: “Let me guess. The women give in.”
Lila: “Well, ultimately.”
K.C.: “A man wrote it, right?”
Lila: “Yes, but the women stopped the war. A lesson to us.”
K.C.: “We jump on the next plane state side and the boys lay down their arms.”
Lila: “How long do you think men would live without women to patch up their wounds and… stiffen their resolve? Proof that the fairer sex can shape destiny.”

K.C. (to Major Otis): “I never promise what I can’t deliver.”

Otis: “You know a lot of Majors, do you?”
K.C.: “Vietnam’s a friendly place.”

Otis (when he refuses ice cream): “Watching you is more fun. You remind me of a little kid.”
K.C. (laughs): “Another big man who likes little girls.”

K.C. (to Lila): “I come, go, do as I please. Nobody owns me. Sure as hell not the damned U.S. Army. I’m a woman of independent means.”

3.11 Magic

K.C.: “How do you wake up looking like that? Nobody looks like that in Vietnam.”
Otis: “Eh, you take care of your clothes, they take care of you.”
K.C.: “Did you read that in Ladies Home Journal?”

K.C. (holding up the prim and proper dress that Otis gave her): “Donna Reed.” (laughs)

(K.C. is reading McMurphy her fortune using tarot cards)
K.C.: “We’re in the middle of a sexual revolution. Grab a pike. Man a barricade. Look, there’s been a double standard since the first Neanderthal dragged two women into the cave. A guy sleeps with two women at once and his buddies throw him a ticker tape parade. A woman fools around once and suddenly she’s loose.
McMurphy: “A flirt.”
K.C.: “Easy.”
McMurphy: “A slut.”
K.C. (holding up tarot card): “The Empress.”
McMurphy: “Is she pregnant?”
K.C.: “Eh, you burn the first card anyway. Come on, doesn’t it feel great? You’ve got a dashing Frenchman, a doctor no less, good in bed – he is good in bed, right?”
McMurphy: “My control group’s kind of limited.”
K.C.: “Yep, the Emperor. Strong. Controlling. Manhood.”
McMurphy: “Is this who I really am?”
K.C.: “Who we all are. Hmmmm…” (looking at next card)
McMurphy: “Death?!”
K.C.: “No, it’s good. Renewal. Rebirth. Something new. So, the doc is a few volts short on the old commitment meter and has gotten into the rather unsavory habit of lying to you on a regular basis…and you’ve got this lovable lap dog kid…”
McMurphy: “Vinnie.”
K.C. “Mmmmm.” (looks at next card) “Ooh, the fool. The kid. The innocent.”
McMurphy: “Did you stack this deck?”
K.C.: “No. The cards never lie.” So, Vinnie, who’s great for your ego, worships the ground you walk on, treats you like a princess and lets you treat him like a doormat. And how is he in bed?”
McMurphy: “Oh, please!”
K.C.: “Oh, please! You’re not going to make me blush!”

K.C. (to McMurphy): “Just love the one you’re with, baby.”

McMurphy: “Who are we here? Who do we belong with?”
K.C.: “Usually the one we just left.”
McMurphy: “Are you going to give me some sage advice?”
K.C.: “I’ll trade ya.”
McMurphy: “How do we know, ever? I love it. I hate it. It feels awful. It feels great.”
K.C.: “The agony and the ecstasy.”
McMurphy: “Have you ever been in love, K.C.?”
K.C.: “No.”
McMurphy: “It’s beautiful.”
K.C.: “An illusion. You’re here for a few weeks, months, and then you go home and you go on your way. It’s like summer camp. You show up, you make a few friends, you fall in love, you live a lifetime in a couple of weeks and then you never see each other again.”
McMurphy: “I like summer camp.”
K.C.: “Me too.”

K.C.: “It was business. What a laugh. I actually thought that somebody might take me seriously. well, they’re never going to let me in.”
Otis: “Hey, you make your choices.”
K.C.: “I’ve made my own bed, so lie in it? Are you going to take care of me, baby? Are you going to take me to the Officer’s Club with all the other wives? Make me over in your own image? Save the white woman? Well, save me from what?! From you?!”
Otis: “I made myself into someone I could be proud of.”
K.C.: “Hey, I’m not a victim! (grabs his face) Take a good look.”
Otis: “There is something between us.”
K.C.: “Making you feel special is what I do for a living. There have been a thousand like you. Same face, same breath, same words. It’s my little act. It’s my own little show, and I’m the star player. (He rips her necklace off. She slaps him. He slaps her back. She takes off the dress he gave her.)
K.C. (near tears): “This is who I am! And I don’t give a damn what you or anybody else thinks!”

3.12 Nightfall

McMurphy: “I was hoping you could identify her.”
K.C.: “Do I look like some Queen of Forensics?”

K.C. (when McMurphy questions her about something the victim was wearing): “Oh, God knows I’m not benevolent enough to lend out my wardrobe to the local natives.”

McMurphy (referring to a word carved on the victim’s body): “What does it say?”
Beckett: “I don’t know. Vietnamese.”
K.C.: “She was a whore. That’s what it says. ‘Diem’ is the Vietnamese word for whore.”

K.C.: “If you won’t find out what happened, I will.”
Otis: “Why? She was a whore, K.C., a Vietnamese whore. Now that puts her case pretty far down on the priority list.”
K.C.: “What would happen if it had been me? What slot would I get on that list?”

K.C. (to McMurphy, who is questioning her about being on the ward that day): “Can’t someone do something normal on this base without getting the third degree from you?”
McMurphy: “The earrings, the shoes, the dress. They were all yours. She didn’t steal them from you, did she?”
K.C.: “She wanted to wear them. Liked getting dressed up. Queen for a day, American for a night. For her, it was big bucks and a string of pearls. She thought she was getting more than she bargained for. She was right.”
McMurphy: “You got more than you bargained for.”
K.C.: “I don’t know. I always figured I’d make a lousy employer. No health benefits, no job security, no reason to get upset over a little accident in the work place.”
McMurphy: “Accident?”
K.C.: “Sure. You saw her body. Don’t you think it was an accident? Someone accidentally beat her, accidentally took a wood carving class on her stomach, accidentally dropped her in a little salt water by the rocks. It’s a war zone. Accidents happen.”
McMurphy: “There will be an investigation.”
K.C.: “Yeah. A few questions maybe. Nothing official. She was a whore. Puts her case pretty far down on the priority list.”
McMurphy: “K.C., you’re the one who knew her. You knew where she was going…”

K.C.: “This is a little out of my normal mode of operations, but I need your help. A Vietnamese woman, I think that she was murdered.”
Lila: “And you want to get involved?”
K.C.: “She was working for me.”
Lila: “In the beauty parlor?”
K.C.: “No. Major Otis doesn’t think an investigation would do any good.”
Lila: “Major Otis is our acting commander.”
K.C.: “Yeah.”
Lila: “Still embraces everything the military ever taught him. Rank. Precision. Order. Right and wrong. Don’t much care for the man, but I envy him that he can still believe so unequivocally.
K.C.: “I sent her to an officer’s party.”
Lila: “Aren’t you afraid an inquiry might hurt your business?”
K.C.: “I could use a day off. The only thing is I don’t think he’s going to give you anymore information than he’s given me.”
Lila: “I don’t plan on asking Mr. Otis for anything.”

Otis: “This is a huge military bureaucracy. There are priorities. This is not a perfect world.”
K.C.: “Oh, that’s just what you hate, isn’t it? Imperfect people littering up an imperfect world. People like me. You think you can dress us up in a fancy bow and a string of pearls. And people like Yung Vo. Yeah, she was a whore, Otis. She was a crummy little Vietnamese whore who is now tracking dirt all over your neat and tidy little base.”
Otis: “She’s not tracking it. You are!”
K.C.: “No doubt because I’m a whore too. Yeah, well, she almost washed out with the tide. I won’t.”

(McMurphy is tending to a wound on K.C.’s face that she got in an altercation.)
K.C.: “Just shut up and do your job.”
McMurphy: “It’s your job you ought to be thinking about.”
K.C.: “Well, I meant to become a nurse, but there’s just too much yapping.”
McMurphy: “There are other choices.”
K.C.: “Maybe I like what I do. Maybe I like working on my own turf, having control of my own life.”
McMurphy: “This your idea of control?”
K.C.: “Oh God, what is the story, McMurphy? Was there a shortage of wounded floating through here today? You didn’t get enough mothering in? You think that every place that has the name Kansas in it means rolling wheat fields, home baked breads and shooting beer cans off the bridge. Well, Kansas City was on the other side of those tracks.”
McMurphy: “How long are you going to keep proving that? Everybody’s got a family from Hell. A father who ignored them, a mother who badgered them, a brother who was smarter. You can wrap yourself in that pain for a long time til finally it’s just too damned scary to let yourself feel anything else, be anything else.”
K.C.: “Are we done here?”
McMurphy: “I am.”

Yung Vo’s daughter: “You pay money. You own me.”
K.C.: “No. You own yourself. I know it’s not always easier that way, but you learn.”

KC (sitting alone in the dark, surrounded by candles): “Well, Father, I’m here for my confession. Where are you? Are you out there in the dark, sneaking into some corner where you feel safe? (pause) When I quit school, I went to work at a meat packing plant. We called it ‘The Pack.’ They would bring the cattle in and thirty-five assembly lines later, it would end up on a shelf in your icebox with plastic wrapped around it. I was assigned to the chuck. It would go by me on the line, and I’d have to reach in with my fingers and pull out the blood clots. Women weren’t allowed to work on the kill floor, but I would sneak down and watch. First, they would stun the animal. Shoot it in the forehead with a .22. Then they’d hoist it upside down, shackles on it ’round its hind legs. Then, one quick, clean slice right through the jugular. And it would just hang there, stunned and bleeding, dying. Numb. And I would watch, from a corner where I felt safe. Stunned. Numb. The best thing about being numb is that you don’t feel anything. Nothing can prick your skin. Nothing can pierce your heart. Everything, everybody you touch feels the same. And when they touch you, you don’t feel anything. I, umm, I’m feeling a little scared now. What if something does pierce my heart?…I’ll feel it…I’ll feel it.”

3.13 Souvenirs

K.C. (to McMurphy & Dodger): “I’m not free. I’m never free.”

3.14 Holly’s Choice

Dr. Richard: “It was a medical situation. I should have been the first person notified.”
K.C.: “Why? So you could have done nothing?”
Dr. Richard: “I wouldn’t have jeopardized her life.”
K.C.: “Oh, you wouldn’t have jeopardized your own sweet butt.”

Dr. Richard: “This wasn’t a game. Her life was at stake.”
K.C.: “A game? I’m not the middle-aged adolescent who runs around this base leering and pinching rear ends and hoping that the girls keep their troubles off the playing field.”

K.C: (to Dr. Richard): “Hey! We don’t need a legal debate. She needs a doctor.”

Holly: “I feel really great, like the weight of the world is lifted off my shoulders.”
K.C.: “Well, careful…”
Holly: “I feel lucky, grateful and ready for anything.”
K.C.: “That usually means that something’s about to hit the fan.”

K.C. (while she’s mixing the poison): “Double, double, toil and trouble…”

Holly: “It’s thickening. I think it’s ready.”
K.C.: “Thank you, Betty Crocker.”

Vietnamese Doctor: “My principles of conduct are no less than those of your own doctors.”
K.C.: “Absolutely identical, I’d say. The high principles of high men on their high horses. It’s a universal language.”

K.C. (to Holly): “I won’t hold your hand and I won’t put up with tears.”

3.15 The Rumor Of Peace

K.C. (to Boonie): “My Wheels to the World deal is about to have a head-on collision with history.”

3.16 Warriors

None – K.C. did not appear in this episode.

3.17 The Thanks Of A Grateful Nation

None – K.C. did not appear in this episode.

3.18 Skylark

Ernie: “You got the best room in this place, not to mention the only bed that can hold two people.”
K.C.: “Yeah, that’s the general idea.”

K.C.: “Look why don’t you just go ahead and take the bed.”
Ernie: “You’re not a tosser, are you?”
K.C.: “A tosser? No, no. No one’s ever said that about me.”

3.19 Phoenix

McMurphy: “What’s this?”
K.C.: “A crucifix.”
Soldier: “Five bucks.”
K.C.: “Okay.”
McMurphy: “I gave this to you.”
K.C.: “Aye aye…”
McMurphy: “Guess it meant a lot, huh?”
K.C.: “Well, it doesn’t exactly go with my wardrobe.”
Soldier: “I’ll give you ten.”
McMurphy: “I’d never sell anything that you gave to me!”
K.C.: “Well, I wouldn’t care if you did. If I give somebody a gift, it’s theirs.”
McMurphy: “It’s a crucifix, for God’s sake.”
K.C.: “I think that God…would want me to have the money.”
Soldier: “$12.50”
McMurphy: “$15”
Soldier: “$20”
McMurphy: “$25”
Soldier: “You can have it.”
K.C.: “Sister, you drive a hard bargain.”
McMurphy: “Five brothers, remember? No sisters. Never wanted one.”
K.C.: “And if you did, it wouldn’t be somebody like me, would it?”
McMurphy: “There you are.” (holds out money to K.C., who ignores it & put the crucifix on)
K.C.: “I’ll never take it off.”

K.C.: “You should be in the hospital.”
Ace (CIA Agent): “I tried that. The nurse was too fine.”
K.C.: “Yeah, well, what am I? Chopped liver?”

McMurphy: “You’re here. I just came from the prison to get you. I was there all day.”
K.C.: “Is that my cue to fall on the floor and kiss your feet?”
McMurphy: “No. A simple thank you would do.”
K.C.: “Oh, thanks.” (heavy on the sarcasm)
McMurphy: “How did you get out?”
K.C.: “Well, you know something. Democracy has caught on here. Justice is for sale.”
McMurphy: “Are you okay?”
K.C.: “Hey, look, it’s over.”
McMurphy: “Well, let me buy you a drink then. We’ll celebrate.”
K.C.: “I’m busy.”
McMurphy: “‘Til when?”
K.C.: “‘Til the rest of my life.”

McMurphy: “Look, you want to talk? Get it out? Yell?”
K.C.: “Oh, I don’t need to yell. You need me to yell.”
McMurphy (snatching the cigarette that K.C. is about to light): “Don’t smoke a cigarette. Talk to me!”
K.C.: “The one time I come to you…”
McMurphy: “And you ask me to lie…”
K.C.: “Not to cover for what I did but because I didn’t do it.”
McMurphy: “How was I supposed to know that?”
K.C.: “Well, you weren’t supposed to know. You were supposed to trust me.”
McMurphy: “Like you trusted me to tell me what was going on?”
K.C.: “I didn’t want you involved.”
McMurphy: “I was involved! A man was dead. You expected me to lie for you for something I knew nothing about. So when they questioned me about you, I said I didn’t know. What is wrong with that?”
K.C.: “Nothing! Not a damn thing! You’re right. You’re always right, McMurphy.”
McMurphy: “I am not.”
K.C.: “Right or wrong. Is that all that matters to you?”
McMurphy: “Yes.”
K.C.: “Must be nice to walk on water. Look, I’m just glad I found out what you are before I left this place thinking you’re something you’re not.”
McMurphy: “A problem you’ll never have because everyone knows what you are.”

K.C.: “What if it had been you?”
McMurphy: “I would never have asked you to lie for me.”
K.C.: “If it were you, you’d rot in jail before you’d admit you needed me.”
McMurphy: “What if I did need you?”
K.C.: “I’d do anything for you.”
McMurphy: “Yeah. For a price.”
K.C.: “You don’t think you come with a price? Everybody comes with a price. We’re not that different…both at our best with men on their backs. You’re never more powerful than when you’ve got somebody’s life who depends on you. My life depended on you!”
McMurphy: “I didn’t tell them anything!”
K.C.: “No, you didn’t tell them that you knew me. That she’s my friend. That she didn’t do it.”
McMurphy: “You’re like the girl in high school who smokes cigarettes so everyone will think she’s bad. Then when someone’s locker gets broken into, you wonder why everyone thinks it’s you.”
K.C.: “Why didn’t you tell them?”
McMurphy: “that night. The ward. The glass. The crucifix.”
K.C.: “Colonel Mustard. The candlestick. The Library. Why didn’t you tell them? All I had was you to save me. You who saves everybody. I’ve never trusted anybody in my life. I trusted you.”
McMurphy: “I didn’t think anybody mattered to you.”
K.C.: “You do! I wish you didn’t!”
McMurphy: “Why?”
K.C.: “Because you don’t have a sister and if you did, it wouldn’t be me!”
McMurphy: “But there you are.”

3.20 F.N.G.

K.C.: “I don’t like being passed along like a used car.”

McMurphy: “I’m Colleen. I’m one of the new guys.”
K.C.: “Charlene, one of the old gals.”

K.C.: “Star light, star bright…Oh brother.”

Boonie: “What are you hiding from?”
K.C.: “I’m not hiding.”
Boonie: “Then what are you trying to prove?”
K.C.: “Just taking a breather. Trying to figure a few things out.”
Boonie: “Whatever you’re trying to prove, you’ve got me convinced.”

Boonie: “I’m lost.”
K.C.: “No, you’re not. You’re found. With all those guys that you still believe in, you don’t have to go anywhere.”
Boonie: “What do you mean?”
K.C.: “I claim this room for me.”
Boonie: “K.C. from K.C.”
K.C.: “That suits me.”

3.21 The Gift

K.C.: “Promise me that you’ll give me the chance to talk you out of anything that resembles charity.”
McMurphy: “What would you do with it?”
K.C.: “Double it in six weeks.”
McMurphy: “Legally?”
K.C.: “Money isn’t good or bad. It is simply a way of keeping score. I don’t want you to lose a shot at making some serious cash. What? Do you want to be a nurse the rest of your life?”

K.C. (after shooting promotional video): “Will you be showing this at the Pentagon?”
Major: “Yes, I’m sure we will.”
K.C.: “There’s gonna be a lot of surprised faces. Think anyone’s going to believe this crap?”
McMurphy: “Hope not.”
K.C.: “Well, it’s the easiest money I ever made standing up.”

3.22 Strange Brew

McMurphy: “What are you doing in here?”
K.C.: “You know, I took a wrong turn in Bangkok.”

McMurphy: “Why are you here again?”
K.C.: “Nobody else is around.”
McMurphy: “Thank you very much.”

K.C.: “God, I kiss more soldiers’ butts selling cars than I used to on my back.”
McMurphy: “Guess that’s what they call salesmanship.”
K.C.: “Well, that’s one thing my old man taught me. How to sell myself to a man.”

K.C. (to McMurphy as they stroll down high school memory lane): “Hey, let’s forget the Cherry Cokes and get a real drink.”

(A drunken conversation)
McMurphy: “A shooting star! Make a wish!”
K.C.: “I don’t believe in wishes. They never come true.”
McMurphy: “Tonight let’s wish that we fly to the moon!”
Beckett: “Not far enough.”
McMurphy: “How about over the rainbow?”
K.C.: “I hated those Munchkins!”
McMurphy: “Come on, Beckett. Sing it with me.”
Beckett: “Oh, I can’t carry a tune.”
K.C.: “Well, that never stopped McMurphy.”

Beckett: “…the Army had different ideas.”
K.C.: “Well, you can’t trust those jerks. They’ll send you to Vietnam.”

McMurphy: “Maybe we could sew Fred’s finger back on?”
Beckett: “You think so?”
McMurphy: “Why not?”
Beckett: “I got it here in my pocket. Uh Oh.”
K.C.: “You lost Fred’s finger?”
Beckett: “I had it. I had it right here. I know I had it here. I know I did.”
McMurphy: “What does it look like?”
K.C.: “Yeah, which finger?”
(They all burst into laughter.)

Joey (K.C.’s high school sweetheart): “What’s the big deal here? We missed a lousy dance.”
K.C.: “You could have gotten me out of there if you wanted to. If you meant what you said.”
Joey: “I did love you, Karen.”
K.C.: “Not enough.”

Joey: “It wasn’t just the dance, was it? Why you’re so angry?”
K.C.: “Look, it’s over. It really doesn’t matter anymore.”
Joey: “Tell me about your father, Karen. Tell me why he chased away every guy who ever looked at you. Tell me why you hate him so much.”
K.C.: “You know.”
Joey: “No…”
K.C.: “He made me his wife. I cooked his meals, I ironed his clothes…I warmed his bed.”
Joey: “Oh God…”

K.C.: “I used to love the rain as a kid. It always made me feel safe. I’d scrunch down in the bed under the covers and listen to it on the roof. The night that he came in, it was raining. The first…the first time, he cried and said that he would never do it again. The second time, he didn’t say anything at all. He just fell asleep on top of me. I stayed awake all night, scared that if I moved, he might try it again. My teachers could never understand why I fell asleep in class. ‘What’s wrong with you, Karen? Is your dad letting you stay up past your bedtime again?’ Well, I guess it’s pretty funny when you think about it. I mean, don’t you think that’s kind of funny?”
Joey: “Why didn’t you tell me?”
K.C.: “What was I supposed to tell you? That I wasn’t the sweet girl that you thought I was. My old man was climbing into the bed with me?”
Joey: “Why didn’t you stop him?”
K.C.: “I was ten years old! You tell me how I was supposed to stop him!”