You Don't Know Jack

Jack Kevorkian:
Because It's my name. Because I can not have another in my life. Because I'm not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang. How may I live without my name? I've given you my soul. Leave me my name.

Jack Kevorkian:
[to Nicol, after Kevorkian was featured in Newsweek] How you wanna celebrate?... You wanna glass of water?

Lynn Mills:
Have you no religion? Have you no God?

Jack Kevorkian:
Oh, I do, lady, I have a religion, his name is Bach. Johann Sebastian Bach. And at least my God isn't an invented one.

Dick Thompson:
[Jack Kevorkian takes the stand, Thompson is the prosecutor] Can we all presume just for the hell of it that we are really in a courtroom, okay? That there is a judge and a jury and real witnesses?

Jack Kevorkian:
No, I will not presume. I refuse to presume.

Dick Thompson:
Can we presume that this is a real trial here?

Jack Kevorkian:
No, we can't. Because there's no law here. Am I wrong?

Dick Thompson:
You're wrong!

Jack Kevorkian:
Prove it. Cite to me one common law case of assisted suicide. One.

Dick Thompson:
I will ask the questions...

Jack Kevorkian:
Go ahead. I'm listening. We're all waiting.

Geoffery Fieger:
The court of appeals' ruling just came in and they ruled in our favor. They said that the law was so poorly worded that it could not be upheld.

Jack Kevorkian:
Oh. Well, I'm glad to hear there's still some smart people in power left.

Geoffery Fieger:
That was the good news. They also ruled that there's no constitutional right to commit suicide...

Jack Kevorkian:
I take back what I just said.

Geoffery Fieger:
...and that aiding in one falls under an old common-law definition of murder.

Jack Kevorkian:
Common law? What the hell is that?

Jack Kevorkian:
Oh, the lingering of death. What a business. Keep death alive. Hospitals don't make money otherwise. Drug companies either. If you're rich and you have the money, you can pay to die. But the poor, they can only afford to stick it out and suffer.

Geoffery Fieger:
I'm going to kick your ass 'til my legs fall off.

Jack Kevorkian:
It's emotionalism. You know, when heart transplants first started... there was the same prevalent feeling, I mean, even among doctors... that it was wrong, it was contrary to God's will, contrary to nature. Isn't it ghoulish to rip a person's chest open and take out a heart? Or a bypass operation? Ether is the same thing. You have ether, been around for centuries, it wasn't used. Not till 1846. It was discovered in 1543... and before that, everybody was being operated on while they were awake. Surgeons were cutting them open while they were awake. Did you know that, Geoff?

Geoffery Fieger:
No.

Jack Kevorkian:
On, yes. And you know why it was banned? Because of religious dogma. Because of the foolish notion... that there's a God Almighty who wills us to suffer.