Maddy Bowen Quotes in Blood Diamond (2006)

Maddy Bowen: Tell me where you are, and I will come help you.

Danny Archer: [after seeing his blood mix in with the red earth] I'm right where I'm supposed to be...

Maddy Bowen: Smuggler?

Danny Archer: How about 'Soldier of Fortune'... or is that too much of a cliché?

Danny Archer: Let me tell you something. You sell blood diamonds too.

Maddy Bowen: Really?

Danny Archer: Yeah.

Maddy Bowen: Tell me, how is that?

Danny Archer: Who do you think buys the stones that I bring out? Dreamy American girls who all want a storybook wedding and a big, shiny rock like the ones in the advertisements of your politically-correct magazines. So, please, don't come here and make judgments on me, all right?

Maddy Bowen: The people back home wouldn't buy a ring if they knew it cost someone else their hand.

Maddy Bowen: The entire country's at war. Why should I help this one person?

[pause]

Maddy Bowen: I can't believe I just said that.

Maddy Bowen: The world is falling apart and all we hear about is blowjob-gate.

Danny Archer: When was the last time the world wasn't falling apart, huh?

Maddy Bowen: Uh, a cynic. Why don't you sit down and make me miserable?

[about her article about the war]

Solomon Vandy: So when people in your country read it, they will come help, yes?

Maddy Bowen: Probably not.

Maddy Bowen: My dad came home from the war in '69. It took him about... twenty years to get right.

Danny Archer: [Scoffs bitterly, Maddy looks at him questioningly] You Americans - you Americans love to talk about your feelings, huh? So, what does that mean? What? You've got a thing for messed up vets now?

Maddy Bowen: [Angrily] Shut up.

[They stare at each other]

Maddy Bowen: You lost both your parents.

Danny Archer: That's a - That's a polite way of putting it, ja. Mum was raped and shot and um... Dad was decapitated and hung from a hook in the barn. I was nine

[leans back, scrunches his eyes, then laughs]

Danny Archer: . Boo-hoo, right?

[Maddy stares]

Danny Archer: Sometimes I wonder, will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? Then I look around and I realize... God left this place a long time ago.

[Leans forward, emotional, voice breaking]

Danny Archer: It's uh... Ah, What's the point, huh?

[Puts his head in his hands]

Maddy Bowen: [Maddy reaches forward and takes his hand. He looks up, and they stare at each other, their hands entwined]

Danny Archer: So, don't tell me you're here to make a difference, huh?

Maddy Bowen: And you're here to make a buck?

Danny Archer: I'm here for lack of a better idea.

Maddy Bowen: That's a shame.

Danny Archer: American, huh?

Maddy Bowen: Guilty.

Danny Archer: Well, Americans usually are.

Maddy Bowen: ...Says the white South African?

Danny Archer: Ts ts ts ts. I'm from Rhodesia!

Maddy Bowen: We say Zimbabwe now, don't we?

Danny Archer: Do we?

Maddy Bowen: Last time I checked.

Maddy Bowen: You lost both your parents.

Danny Archer: That's a polite way of putting it, ja. Mum was raped and shot and uh... Dad was decapitated and hung from a hook in the barn. I was nine... boo-hoo right?

Maddy Bowen: Three out of five ex-boyfriends polled think I need to be in a constant state of crisis. Maybe I just give a shit.

Danny Archer: Why don't we go back to your place, see what's in the mini bar?

Maddy Bowen: I'm a print journalist... I drank it.

Danny Archer: [reads off Maddy's computer] "In the ninety degree heat, Solomon Vandy drops to his knees, rattling the wire with his powerful hands."

[laughs lightly]

Maddy Bowen: What?

[Turns around aggressively, smiling an angry smile that turns into a grimace]

Maddy Bowen: Do you think I'm exploiting his grief?

Danny Archer: [Scoffs knowingly again]

Maddy Bowen: You're right. It's shit. It's like one of those infomercials with African kids with swollen bellies and flies in their eyes. See here I've got dead mothers, I've got severed limbs, but it's *nothing* new. Sure, it might make some people cry if they read it, maybe even write a check. But it's not going to be enough to make it stop! I'm sick of writing about victims but it's all I can fucking do! Because I need names, I need dates, I need pictures, I need bank accounts. Which is to say that I need someone to go *on* record. And if that's not you, and you're not really gonna help me, and we're not really gonna screw, then why don't you get the *fuck* out of my face, and let me do my work?

Danny Archer: [scoffs, grimacing] You know Solomon thinks his son will be a doctor someday? Maybe his baby dies in that camp, maybe his daughter gets raped. Who knows, maybe both. Do you realize that that diamond is his only chance of getting his family out of here...

Maddy Bowen: [angrily] You don't give a rat's ass...

Danny Archer: Do you understand that?

Maddy Bowen: About his family.

Danny Archer: [Saying goodbye] you find yourself a good man alright?

Maddy Bowen: I have THREE sisters, they're all married to good men.