The Sandman (TV Series)

The Sound of Her Wings (2022)

Ferdinand Kingsley: Hob Gadling

Quotes 

• [Morpheus meets Hob in the present day, at the New Inn] 

  Hob Gadling : [smiles]  You're late.

  Dream : [smiles back]  It seems I owe you an apology. I've always heard it impolite to keep one's friends waiting.

• Hob Gadling : [to Morpheus]  I'll tell you what, I'll be here in a hundred years' time. If you're here then too, it'll be because we're friends. No other reason, right?

• Bartender (1989) : You waiting for someone?

  Hob Gadling : I think I've been stood up. We had a fight, last time we were here.

  Bartender (1989) : Ah.

  Hob Gadling : It was my fault. Wish I could say I was drunk at the time, but I was just an idiot.

  Bartender (1989) : I've seen plenty of friends get in fights in pubs. Even more of them laugh about it together later.

  Hob Gadling : Maybe in another hundred years.

  Bartender (1989) : Ah. You'll have to have find a new pub by then. This place has been sold to make room for new flats. The borough council are trying to stop them, but if you've got enough money in this country, you can do whatever you bloody want. Pour you another one, while you wait?

  Hob Gadling : Please.

• [in 1489] 

  Hob Gadling : How did you know that I'd still be here? Who are you? A wizard? A saint?... A demon? Have I made a bargain with the devil?

  Dream : No.

  Hob Gadling : Then why aren't I dead long since? Is this some kind of game?

  Dream : No game.

  Hob Gadling : But why? Who are you? Why are you here?

  Dream : I'm here because I'm interested.

  Hob Gadling : In me?

  Dream : In your experience.

  Hob Gadling : What do I have to do?

  Dream : Nothing. You live your life as you choose. Then on this day, every 100 years, we will meet.

• Dream : Did I hear you say you have no intention of ever dying?

  Hob Gadling : Uh, yeah. Yeah, that's right.

  Dream : Then you must tell me what it's like. Let us meet here again, Robert Gadling, in this tavern of the White Horse in 100 years.

  Pub Visitor #2 (1389) : [laughs]  A hundred years and I'm Pope Urban!

  Hob Gadling : Don't mind them. A hundred years' time, on this day? I will see you in the year of our Lord 1489, then.

  Pub Visitor #2 (1389) : Who was that, then, Hobsie?

  Hob Gadling : Haven't a clue. But tell you what, I'll ask him in a hundred years' time.

• [in 1989] 

  Hob Gadling : Whiskey, please.

  Bartender (1989) : Uh, you'll have to be more specific. We got a menu now.

  Hob Gadling : Oh. What's the oldest you got?

  Bartender (1989) : Well, I've got a Glen Grant, old enough to be your father.

  Hob Gadling : [smiles]  I'm older than I look.

• [in 1889] 

  Hob Gadling : You knew Lady Johanna. You know Lushing Lou. You know everyone, don't you?

  Dream : I saw her again, you know.

  Hob Gadling : Who? Lady Johanna?

  Dream : She undertook a task for me - and succeeded admirably, I might add.

  Hob Gadling : That might be the only thing I've learned after 500 years: People are almost always better than you think they are. Not me, though. Still the same as ever.

  Dream : I think perhaps you've changed.

  Hob Gadling : Well, I may have learnt a bit from my mistakes. But... doesn't seem to stop me from making them. I think it's you that's changed.

  Dream : How so?

  Hob Gadling : I think I know why we still meet here, century after century. It's not because you want to see whether or not I'm ready to seek death. I don't think I'll ever seek death. By now, you know that about me. So, I think you're here for something else.

  Dream : And what might that be?

  Hob Gadling : Friendship. I think you're lonely.

  Dream : You dare...

  Hob Gadling : No, look, I'm not saying...

  Dream : You... dare suggest one such as I might need your companionship?

  Hob Gadling : Yes. Yes, I do.

  Dream : Then I shall take my leave of you and prove you wrong.

  [walks away] 

• Johanna Constantine : They tell of a tale in these London parts, that the Devil and the Wandering Jew meet once every century in a tavern. Two years past, sewn into the shirt of a dead man, I found this.

  [sets down a drawing of Hob and Morpheus made at their last meeting] 

  Hob Gadling : Is that meant to be me? Oh, I look terrible. You look worse.

  Johanna Constantine : You return to this pub every 100 years, striking bargains with men, sharing gifts, immortality, which you will now share with me. Well, have you nothing to say?

  Dream : I am no Devil.

  Hob Gadling : And I'm not Jewish.

  Johanna Constantine : Fie... What manner of creatures are you then?

  Hob Gadling : Who wants to know?

  Johanna Constantine : I'm Lady Johanna Constantine. You will both follow me, sirs. My coach is without. I can see there is so much you can tell me, so much I can learn.

  Dream : No. No, I think not.

• Hob Gadling : Look, I've seen death. I lost half my village to the Black Death. I fought under Buckingham in Burgundy. It's not like I don't know what death is. Death is... stupid.

  Pub Visitor #2 (1389) : You're a fool, Hob.

  Hob Gadling : Nobody has to die. The only reason people die is... is 'cause everyone does it. You all just go along with it. But not me. I've made up my mind. I'm not going to die.

  Pub Visitor #2 (1389) : Hobs, death comes for every man.

  Hob Gadling : You don't know that. I might get lucky. There's always a first time. There's so much to do, so many things to see: Women to swive, ale to drink, people to drink with!

  Dream : Why would any sensible creature crave an eternity of this?

  Death : You could find out.

  Dream : How?

  Death : I could grant him his wish.

  Dream : Do that, and he will be begging for death within a century, I assure you.

  Death : This will prove very interesting.

• [in 1789] 

  Hob Gadling : Four hundred years now, I've been meeting you here and there is so much I still don't know. Who are you? Truly? What's your name?

  Johanna Constantine : I might ask both of you that same question, gentlemen.