The Blacklist (TV Series)

The Mombasa Cartel (No. 114) (2014)

James Spader: Raymond 'Red' Reddington

Quotes 

• Raymond 'Red' Reddington : You know, 29 years ago in Sierra Leone, there was a farmer named Samwel Zuma who had the audacity to identify several low-level Mombasa operatives to local authorities. The cartel massacred the entire family, all but the youngest son. He was sold to a local ring of flesh peddlers. The majority of children in those circumstances don't last more than nine months. He survived eight years. He was 14 when I found him. Too old, too tall, too angry and dangerous to be of any further value. He was left to die, chained to a standpipe in the basement of a squalid brothel in Nairobi, branded, burned, barely alive. So I took him, made him well, saw to his education. He graduated university with a bachelor's degree in English Literature. He speaks four languages fluently and can get by in a half a dozen more. He is splendid. His name is Dembe.

  Dembe Zuma : Raymond, don't. That was then. It serves no purpose to kill him now.

  Raymond 'Red' Reddington : You see that, Geoff? That is what a good man does. That is what separates men like him from men like you... and me.