- Takeshi Kovacs: [narrating] I knew I shouldn't go, 'cause when the victors rewrite history. It's just another kind of war waged after the battlefield killing is done, to murder the memory of the defeated.
- Takeshi Kovacs: [narrating] Technology advances. But humans don't. We're smart monkeys, and what we want is always the same. Food, shelter, sex, and in all its forms
- [puts on VR headset]
- Takeshi Kovacs: Escape.
- [first lines]
- Takeshi Kovacs: [narrating] Peace is an illusion. And no matter how tranquil the world seems, peace doesn't last long. Peace is a struggle against our very nature. A skin we stretch over the bone, muscle, and sinew of our own innate savagery.
- Fisherman: What are you doing?
- Boy: [reaching for floating woman] We can't just leave her here.
- Fisherman: She's not our problem. You want to get us arrested? Just let her go.
- Takeshi Kovacs: [continuing narration] The instinct of violence curls inside us like a parasite, waiting for a chance to feed on our rage and multiply until it bursts out of us. War is the only thing we really understand.
- Miriam Bancroft: [unbuttoning his shirt] Have you been with anyone since you've been decanted?
- Takeshi Kovacs: Not what we're talking about.
- Miriam Bancroft: Maybe that's not what *you're* talking about.
- Takeshi Kovacs: I think that's enough.
- Miriam Bancroft: Enough? It's an interesting word. I'm not familiar with it.
- [last lines]
- Takeshi Kovacs: [narrating] The moments of peace that we find sometimes they aren't anything but warfare, thinly disguised. And sometimes surrender can be as savage as any attack.
- Alazne Ortega: How am I supposed to explain this to your brothers and sisters? Everyone at church? To your father, God rest his soul? That you've renounced your religious coding.
- Kristin Ortega: Like you said, Papa's dead. That should limit the explaining.
- Tenant: You gotta get out of the business of serving humans, Poe... into the business of serving *up* humans.
- Little Girl: Mom said grudges are stupid. She said you had to let them go or else it would kill your soul. What do you think?
- Takeshi Kovacs: I think your mom doesn't know what the fuck she's talking about!
- Little Girl: What?
- Takeshi Kovacs: See, friends are overrated, 'cause eventually someone will come along and shoot 'em in the stack. You're better off alone.