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Rene Balcer Quotes

René Balcer is a Canadian-American television writer, director, producer, and showrunner.

✵ 9. February 1954
Rene Balcer photo
Rene Balcer: 22 quotes1 like

Famous Rene Balcer Quotes

“If you're going to play stickball in Canarsie you better learn Brooklyn rules.”

Rene Balcer

ADA Jack McCoy in the Law & Order episode Blue Bamboo.
Law & Order

“Torture injures everyone who comes into contact with it and corrodes the country that abides it.”

Rene Balcer

Quoted in Harper's Magazine, October 5, The People v. The Torture Team: Six Questions for Law & Order's Rene Balcer: On torture.

“The more I know, the less I sleep.”

Rene Balcer

Det. Alexandra Eames in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent

“In L. A., the only thing within walking distance is your car.”

Rene Balcer

Quoted in The Hollywood Reporter, September 9, 2010, TV's Top 50 Showrunners: On Los Angeles.

“Women write crime better than men do. Men tend to play it safe, relying on an old-boy's network (to get work). Women feel freer. They swing for the bleachers.”

Rene Balcer

Quoted in The New York Times , December 30, 2008, Onstage, Tackling Ambition and Crime: On Writers.

“Beauty, brains, and a complete psycho. My dream girl.”

Rene Balcer

Det. Mike Logan in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Rene Balcer Quotes

“We by nature mistrust authority no matter who wields it—and I think that’s healthy. Though I disagreed with him on the facts, I fully support Rep. Joe Wilson’s right to call out President Obama—I just wish Democrats had had the balls to call out President Bush when he was peddling his lies to Congress.”

Rene Balcer

Quoted in Harper's Magazine, October 5, The People v. The Torture Team: Six Questions for Law & Order's Rene Balcer: On American politics.

“It is true that one of the first acts of tyrants is to erase history, to wipe out the recorded memory of a people. With that in mind, it's important to remember that the work that we do as writers, artists and performers will form an essential part of the collective memory that future generations will draw upon. And so we owe it to those future generations to defend that memory and be honest witnesses to our times.”

Rene Balcer

In a speech to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, 12/8/09: On the duties of artists.

“I write about power, that's my real subject - how you get it, what you do with it, how you abuse it. I'm equally wary of liberals and conservatives.”

Rene Balcer

Quoted in Le Devoir, September 14, 2009, Un surdoué du crime: On his writing.

“Bad guys do what good guys dream.”

Rene Balcer

Det. Robert Goren in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode One.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent

“The search for truth…It's not for the faint-hearted.”

Rene Balcer

Det. Robert Goren in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent

“Nobody's reasonable when they're in love. That's the whole point of it.”

Rene Balcer

Det. Robert Goren in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent

“Man has only the rights he can defend. Our most basic right is life. It's enshrined not only in our Constitution, but in the charter of the United Nations. The prohibition against taking a life is found in our most ancient texts and in the statutes of every nation. Every murder, whether in Brooklyn, Santiago, Rwanda or Kosovo, demands punishment by whatever legal means possible. Otherwise, the right to life is just an empty promise. The law against murder applies to all. No matter the perpetrator, the victim, or the country where the murder is committed. It is the one moral law that recognizes no national, racial or religious boundaries. It can tolerate no exception. There is one law. One law. And when that law is broken it is the duty of every officer of any court to rise in defense of that law, and bring their full power and diligence to bear against the law breaker. Because Man has only those rights he can defend. Only those rights.”

Rene Balcer

Spoken by Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy in the Law & Order episode Vaya Con Dios.
Law & Order

“I’m sympathetic to the decent and hapless footsoldier into whose lap falls the unenviable duty of carrying out fubar policies.”

Rene Balcer

Quoted in Harper's Magazine, October 5, The People v. The Torture Team: Six Questions for Law & Order's Rene Balcer: On the Iraq War.

“I'll make sure you go away for so long, they'll be planting tomatoes on Mars by the time you get out.”

Rene Balcer

ADA Jack McCoy.
Law & Order

“I'm playing legal tiddlywinks with these punks. What I'd really like to do is take 'em up to Battery Park and hang 'em by the scrotum.”

Rene Balcer

ADA Jack McCoy in the Law & Order episode Thrill.
Law & Order

“Your client's not insane… he's in love. Maybe it's hard for you to tell the two apart, but the law can.”

Rene Balcer

ADA Ron Carver in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode Crazy.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent

“Oh, the Patriot Act. I read that in its original title, 1984.”

Rene Balcer

Det. Mike Logan in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode Stress Position.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent

“It's not enough to do good. You have to be seen doing good.”

Rene Balcer

DA Arthur Branch in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode In the Wee Small Hours.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent

“See? That's what happens when you keep people from doing what they do best: It makes them insane.”

Rene Balcer

Det. Robert Goren in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent

“Justice is a jagged road.”

Rene Balcer

ADA Ronald Carver in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode In the Wee Small Hours.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent

“Just how far up your ass is your head?!”

Rene Balcer

DA Jack McCoy in the Law & Order episode Rubber Room.
Law & Order

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