Burn Notice (TV Series)

Fight or Flight (2007)

Jeffrey Donovan: Michael Westen

Photos 

Quotes 

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Asking my mom for anything is a lot like getting a favour from a Russian mob boss. He'll give you what you want with a smile, but believe me, you'll pay for it.

• Michael Westen : [to Fiona after she tosses Molotov cocktails]  Fi, it looks like Fallujah down there!

• Cara Stagner : Michael, can't we just tell them I won't testify? I don't care...

  Michael Westen : No. Once they send guys to your house to kill you, you're past the "I promise not to tell" stage.

• Michael Westen : [voiceover]  But in the end, sometimes making an escape is just about being willing to do what the guy chasing you won't. Like jump off a building.

• Michael Westen : What're you doin', Mom?

  Madeline Westen : [smoking]  Makin' a salad. I'm gettin' healthy.

  Michael Westen : Does the recipe call for cigarette ash?

  Madeline Westen : One mountain a day, Michael. That's what my yoga instructor says.

  Michael Westen : You never leave the house. Where are you meeting yogis?

• Michael Westen : Sam, I need you to come to the safe house.

  Sam Axe : Yeah, let me just put on some pants.

  Michael Westen : Come naked, just come now!

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  A drug cartel is a business. If killing a witness to protect a valued employee from jail time is the best way to keep making money, they'll do that. If it looks like that employee is testifying to the FBI though, they're just as happy to leave the witness alone and take care of their problem another way.

• Bruce Gellman : You have no idea who you're dealing with.

  Michael Westen : No, I read the article. Most of it anyway. Scary guys, drugs, guns. Did I miss something?

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  I love commuters. Anybody who drives the same route to work everyday, it's like they're doing all the work for you... and a punctual commuter, a guy who's in the same place every morning at the eight thirty-six am, it's almost too easy.

• Michael Westen : If they had any brains at all, they would put the word out there. You show up and someone makes a phone call.

  Sophie Stagner : You really think they would use kids at my school? Are you serious?

  Michael Westen : Yeah, that's what I would do.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Threaten any serious criminal organization and they're going to do one of two things: they'll send someone to make a deal... or they'll send someone to make a corpse. Either way you've got something to work with.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Approaching a spy in the middle of a job gives you a lot of leverage. They're playing a delicate game and the last thing they want is someone coming in and smashing their delicate game with a brick.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  International conferences attract spies for the same reason hotel bars attract hookers. You can do business and drink for free.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  When faced with a superior force, you can do two things: you can retreat quietly or you can attack with as much fanfare as possible.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Convincing a bully to back down is usually a matter of showing them you're not afraid of them. Of course, some bullies have guys with three fifty-seven magnums. Then you change tactics.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  When you go on the run, the first thing you do is lay down tracks in the opposite direction, but that only works if the bad guys find the trail and believe it's for real. Which means selling it. You need to put on a little show, make them feel clever. When you make somebody work to get a piece of information they'll believe it that much more because it's hard to get.

• Sophie Stagner : What are we supposed to do in Buffalo?

  Michael Westen : Same thing you do here, there are malls... and clothing stores.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Faking a surveillance video has come a long way, it use to be slaving over a VHS tape with a razor blade. Now it's a few hours and a computer.

• Michael Westen : [voice-over]  Basic rule of bodyguarding, never fight with the protectee around, mostly because if they happen to catch a stray bullet, you just lost your job.

• Sam Axe : Check this out, Mike. Guns of steel!

  Michael Westen : Well, I'll tell you what, if there's a situation that requires showing off your upper body and boozy flirting, you're my guy.

• Sophie Stagner : It's a freaking garage. I'd rather be killed than live here.

  Michael Westen : Well, those are your two options.

• Sophie Stagner : [about the boy she likes]  So you're saying that if we're meant to be together that we'll find each other?

  Michael Westen : Sure.

  Sophie Stagner : You're really bad at this.

  Michael Westen : Yeah.

• Michael Westen : [voiceover]  My father's approach to machinery was similar to his approach to his family: If you don't like how something works, keep banging on it till it does what you want. If something doesn't fit, force it. And above all, make sure it looks good on the outside.

• Sophie Stagner : So we're supposed to stay in here... in the garage and do nothing?

  Michael Westen : Pretty much. It's not as bad as safe houses go. You got a TV, at least. I once spent three days in a Riyadh storage facility with nothing but a flashlight and an Arabic celebrity magazine.

  Sophie Stagner : Can I call my friends, at least?

  Michael Westen : No. No outside contact until this is over.

  Sophie Stagner : They're high school students. You're completely paranoid.

  Michael Westen : Maybe. But I'm still breathing.

• [as Michael walks to his meeting with Gellman, an operative watching triggers a remote control bomb. Nothing happens] 

  Michael Westen : [appears behind him]  Problem with the detonator?

  [holds it up] 

  Michael Westen : I borrowed this when you went to take a leak.

  [the Operative pulls a gun, Michael disarms him and kicks his knee, knocking him to the ground] 

  Michael Westen : Gellman's not coming, is he? What's going on?

  Operative : I don't know nothing.

  Michael Westen : Oh, come on, don't be so modest. You hear things, around the water cooler at the office. I could take the other knee out, if that helps.

  Operative : They talked to the guys in Colombia. They say... to kill you all.

  Michael Westen : Really?

  [knocks him out] 

  Michael Westen : That's not what I was hoping they'd say.

• [Michael stops Gellman's car for the second time] 

  Bruce Gellman : I suppose I should thank you for not blowing out my tires again.

  [later, as he is leaving, Michael stabs a knife into Gellman's tire] 

  Michael Westen : That's for trying to kill me.