Jeffrey Wigand Quotes in The Insider (1999)

Lowell Bergman: I fought for you and I still fight for you!

Jeffrey Wigand: You fought for me? You manipulated me! Into where I am now - staring at the Brown & Williamson building, it's all dark except for the tenth floor. That's the legal department, that's where they fuck with my life!

Lowell Bergman: Jeffrey, where are you going with this? Where are you going? (Pause) You are important to a lot of people, Jeffrey. You think about that, and you think about them. (Pause) I'm all out of heroes, man. Guys like you are in short supply.

Jeffrey Wigand: Yeah, guys like you, too.

Agent: Do you have a history of emotional problems, Mr. Wigand?

Jeffrey Wigand: Yes. Yes, I do. I get extremely emotional when assholes put bullets in my mailbox!

Jeffrey Wigand: So, what you're saying is it wasn't enough to fire me for no good reason. Now you question my integrity? On top of the humiliation of being fired, you threaten me? You threaten my family? It never crossed my mind not to honor my agreement. And I will tell you, Mr. Sandefur... and Brown & Williamson too - fuck me? Well, fuck you!

Mike Wallace: And do you wish you hadn't come forward? Do you wish you hadn't blown the whistle?

Jeffrey Wigand: There are times when I wish I hadn't done it. There are times when I feel com... compelled to do it. If you asked me, would I do it again, do I think it's worth it? Yeah I think its worth it.

Jeffrey Wigand: I can't seem to find the criteria to decide. It's too big a decision to make without being resolved in my own mind.

Lowell Bergman: Maybe things have changed.

Jeffrey Wigand: What's changed?

Lowell Bergman: You mean since this morning?

Jeffrey Wigand: No, I mean since whenever.

Lowell Bergman: Alright... ABC Telemarketing Company?

Jeffrey Wigand: ABC...?

Lowell Bergman: ABC Telemarketing Company.

Jeffrey Wigand: A can opener! A $39.95 can opener. I cancelled payment... it was junk. You ever bounce a check, Lowell? You ever look at another woman's tits? You ever cheat a little on your taxes? Whose life, if you look at it under a microscope, doesn't have any flaws...?

Lowell Bergman: Well that's the whole point, Jeffrey. That's the whole point. Anyone's. Everyone's. They are gonna look under every rock, dig up every flaw, every mistake you've ever made. They are going to distort and exaggerate everything you've ever done, man. Don't you understand?

Jeffrey Wigand: What does this have to do with my testimony?

Lowell Bergman: That's not the point.

Jeffrey Wigand: What does this have to do with my testimony? I told the truth! It's valid and true and provable...!

Lowell Bergman: That's not the fucking point, whether you told the truth or not!... Hello?

Jeffrey Wigand: I told the truth... I told the truth... I've got to teach class. I've got to go. I've got to teach class.

Lowell Bergman: And I've got to refute every fucking accusation made in this report before The Wall Street Journal runs... I am trying to protect you, man.

Jeffrey Wigand: Well, I hope you improve your batting average.

Jeffrey Wigand: I told the truth.

Mike Wallace: You heard Mr. Sandefur say before Congress that he believed nicotine was not addictive.

Jeffrey Wigand: I believe Mr. Sandefur perjured himself because I watched those testimonies very carefully.

Mike Wallace: All of us did, and it was this whole line of people, whole line of CEOs up there, all swearing.

Jeffrey Wigand: Part of the reason I'm here is that I felt that their representations clearly misstated - at least within Brown and Williamson's representation - clearly misstated what is common language within the company: "We are in the nicotine delivery business."

Mike Wallace: And that's what cigarettes are for.

Jeffrey Wigand: A delivery device for nicotine.

Mike Wallace: A delivery device for nicotine. Put it in your mouth, light it up, and you're gonna get your fix.

Jeffrey Wigand: You're gonna get your fix.

Mike Wallace: You're saying that Brown and Williamson manipulates and adjusts the nicotine fix not by artificially adding nicotine but by enhancing the effect of nicotine through the use of elements such as ammonia?

Jeffrey Wigand: The process is known as "impact boosting". While not spiking nicotine, they clearly manipulate it. There was extensive use of this technology known as "ammonia chemistry". It allows for the nicotine to be more rapidly absorbed in the lung and therefore affect the brain and central nervous system. The straw that broke the camel's back for me, and really put me in trouble with Sandefur, was a compound called coumarin. When I came on board at B. and W., they had tried the transition from coumarin to a similar flavor that would give the same taste, and had been unsuccessful. I wanted out immediately. I was told that it could affect sales, so I should mind my own business. I constructed a memo to Mr. Sandefur indicating I could not in conscience continue with coumarin, a product we now know and we had documentation was similar to coumadin, a lung-specific carcinogen.

Mike Wallace: And you sent the documents to Sandefur?

Jeffrey Wigand: I sent the documents forward to Sandefur. I was told that we would continue to work on a substitute but we weren't going to remove it as it would impact sales, and that was his decision.

Mike Wallace: In other words, you were charging Sandefur and Brown and Williamson with ignoring health considerations consciously?

Jeffrey Wigand: Most certainly.

Mike Wallace: And on March 24th, Thomas Sandefur, CEO of Brown and Williamson, had you fired. And the reason he gave you?

Jeffrey Wigand: "Poor communication skills."

Mike Wallace: And you wish you hadn't come forward? You wish you hadn't blown the whistle?

Jeffrey Wigand: Yeah, at times I wish I hadn't done it. There were times I felt compelled to do it. If you ask me would I do it again, do I think it's worth it? Yeah, I think it's worth it.

Jeffrey Wigand: I'm just a commodity to you, aren't I? I could be anything. Right? Anything worth putting on between commercials.

Lowell Bergman: To a network, probably, we're all commodities. To me? You are not a commodity. What you are is important.

Mike Wallace: And that's what cigarettes are for?

Jeffrey Wigand: A delivery device for nicotine.

Mike Wallace: A delivery device for nicotine. Put it in your mouth, lit it up and you're gonna get your fix?

Jeffrey Wigand: You're gonna get your fix.

Lowell Bergman: I did not burn you. I did not give you up to anyone!

Jeffrey Wigand: This is my house... In front of my wife, my kids? What business do we have?

Lowell Bergman: To straighten something out with you. Right here. Right now.

Jeffrey Wigand: So, you didn't mention my name? You haven't talked to anybody about me?

Lowell Bergman: Why am I gonna mention your name?

Jeffrey Wigand: How did Brown & Williamson know I spoke to you...?

Lowell Bergman: How the hell do I know about Brown & Williamson?

Jeffrey Wigand: It happened after I talked to you. I do not like coincidences!

Lowell Bergman: And I don't like paranoid accusations! I'm a journalist. Think. Use your head. How do I operate as a journalist by screwing the people who could provide me with information before they provided me with it?

Jeffrey Wigand: [pauses] ... You came all the way down here to tell me that?

Lowell Bergman: You go public, and 30 million people hear what you gotta say, nothing - I mean nothing - will ever be the same again. You believe that?

Jeffrey Wigand: No.

Lowell Bergman: You should. Because when you're done, the judgement is gonna go down in the court of public opinion, my friend. And that's... the power you have.

Jeffrey Wigand: You believe that?

Lowell Bergman: I believe that? Yes, I believe that.

Jeffrey Wigand: You believe that because you get information out to people, something happens?

Lowell Bergman: Yes.

Jeffrey Wigand: Maybe that's what you've been telling yourself all these years to justify having a good job. Having status. Maybe for the audience, its just voyeurism, something to do on a Sunday night. And maybe it won't change a fucking thing. And people like myself, and my family are left hung out to dry, used up, broke, alone.

Lowell Bergman: Are you talking to me, or did somebody else just walk in here? I never forced any of that...

Jeffrey Wigand: I don't really understand, exactly...

Lowell Bergman: Don't evade a choice you gotta make by questioning my reputation or 60 Minutes with this cheap skepticism.

Jeffrey Wigand: I have to put my family's welfare on the line here, my friend, and what are you putting up? You're putting up words.

Lowell Bergman: "Words." While you've been dicking around some fucking company golf tournaments, I've been out in the world, giving my word... and backing it up with action. Now, are you gonna go and do this thing, or not?

Jeffrey Wigand: I said I'd call the kids before they went to bed.

Jeffrey Wigand: Fuck it. Let's go to court.

Jeffrey Wigand: I have to put my family's welfare on the line here, my friend! And what are you puttin' up? You're puttin' up words!

Lowell Bergman: Words? While you've been dickin' around at some fucking company golf tournaments, I been out in the world, giving my word and backing it up with action.

Jeffrey Wigand: You manipulated me into where I am now - staring at the Brown and Williamson Building. It's all dark except the tenth floor. That's the legal department, where they fuck with my life!

Lowell Bergman: I am trying to protect you, man.

Jeffrey Wigand: Well I hope you improve your batting average.

Jeffrey Wigand: How did a radical journalist from Ramparts Magazine end up at CBS?

Lowell Bergman: I still do the tough stories. 60 Minutes reaches a lot of people.

Jeffrey Wigand: What's this have to do with the price of tea in China?

Jeffrey Wigand: [to a suspicious-looking fellow golfer] Stay away from me. Stay *away* from me!

Jeffrey Wigand: I find chemistry to be magical. I find it an adventure, an exploration into the physical building blocks of our universe.

Jeffrey Wigand: Up to you, Jeffrey! That's the power you have, Jeffrey! Vital inside information the American public need to know! Lowell Bergman, the hotshot who never met a source he couldn't turn around!