Procès, Le
1962
Joseph K.: I'm sorry. Miss Burstner: You're sorry, you're sorry, you're sorry. You always keep saying that. Who gives a damn? Joseph K.: I know. I'm s ... (Joseph K. catches himself and then laughs) Miss Burstner: What's the big joke? Joseph K.: I almost said it again. You're right, of course. You're perfectly right. Miss Burstner: Yeah? Joseph K.: Nobody gives a damn. I know you don't.
Uncle Max: All these fancy electronics, they're all right in their place, but not for anything practical.
Bloch: You're supposed to be able to tell from a man's face and from the line of his lips, especially, how his case is going to turn out. Joseph K.: So? Bloch: So the people are saying that from the expression on your lips, they could tell that you'll be found guilty, yes, in the very near future.
Hastler: It's true, you know. Accused men are attractive. Not that being accused makes any immediate change in a man's personal appearance. But if you've got the right eye for these things, you can pick out an accused man in the largest crowd. It's just something about them, something attractive.
Hastler: To be in chains is sometimes safer than to be free.
Titorelli: You see, in definite acquittal, all the documents are annulled. But with ostensible acquittal, your whole dossier continues to circulate. Up to the higher courts, down to the lower ones, up again, down. These oscillations and peregrinations, you just can't figure 'em. Joseph K.: No use in trying either, I suppose. Titorelli: Not a hope. Why, I've known cases of an acquitted man coming home from the court and finding the cops waiting there to arrest him all over again. But then, of course, theoretically it's always possible to get another ostensible acquittal. Joseph K.: The second acquittal wouldn't be final either. Titorelli: It's automatically followed by the third arrest. The third acquittal, by the fourth arrest. The fourth ... Joseph K.: I think what surprises me most is how ignorant I am about everything concerning this court of yours. For an accused man, that's a mistake. He should never let himself be caught napping, never for a minute let his eye stray to the left, when for all he knows, a judge or somebody like that can be lurking somewhere to the right.
Joseph K.: I don't pretend to be a martyr, no. Hastler: Not even a victim of society? Joseph K.: I am a member of society. Hastler: Do you think you can persuade the court that you're not responsible by reason of lunacy? Joseph K.: I think that's what the court wants me to believe. Yes, that's the conspiracy: to persuade us all that the whole world is crazy, formless, meaningless, absurd. That's the dirty game. So I've lost my case. What of it? You, you're losing too. It's all lost, lost. So what? Does that sentence the entire universe to lunacy?
Uncle Max: You're not going to try and tell me you think you can diddle your way out of a criminal charge with an adding machine!