“There’s a dream I have from time to time. And in the dream I don‘t stop. I kill all the soldiers and the hitmen, the extortioners and racketeers, the dark old *&^% who send them out to fight — I hold the trigger down until they‘re ALL GONE. But I don‘t stop. The innocents are watching, just like always. The slack-jawed thousands, gazing at the beast. My family lie red and shredded in the grass. I face the crowd and bring the weapon to my shoulder. If my world ends, I tell them, so does yours. The recoil starts and I wake up. It‘s just a dream, I always tell myself. It‘s just a dream. It‘s just a dream.”
“There are times when I want to get my hands on God.”
“I was here for the couple and their kid. I was at the right place at the right time. Not like before. Not like that other time. I’m different now. Always wired. Ready to kill. Ready to punish. Ready to die. Always alone.”
“You don’t know what it’s like to hate. To have your entire life become nothing more than an expression of hate. Nothing else matters. Nothing else can compare. Or taste as sweet.”
“They hated that old man so much they shot him through my family. The world went crazy on a summer‘s day in Central Park, in the time before Uzis and Berettas, before Nine Millimeter popguns ruled the streets. There was a Thompson, like the ones our fathers carried, and I recognized it‘s rattle even as its big, man-stopping forty-fives punched blood and breath from my lung. I hit the ground beside my daughter, she‘d been gutshot, badly, and when she saw the things that boiled and wriggled from her belly, the expression on her face was not a little girl’s. My wife bled out later on the operating table, her heart a gaping hole her life drained through. Whenever I get careless, that yearning in her eyes creeps up and brings me to my knees. Right then the old man‘s soldiers started shooting back, my son dropped wordlessly, without a mark on him. I took a breath that cut like glass, spat blood, rose to my knees, picked up the boy and searched in vain for entry wounds. The bullet had entered through his open mouth. That was our picnic in the park. And now, every night, I go out and make the world sane.”
“I caught a glimpse of heaven once. The Angels showed me. The idea was I’d kill for them. Clean up their mistakes on Earth. Eventually redeem myself. Tried it. Didn’t like it. Told them where to stick it. So they brought me up to heaven, to see what I’d be missing. A wife. A son. A daughter. I hadn’t seen them since they bled out in my arms. Then I was cast down. Back to a world of killers. Rapists. Psychos. Perverts. A brand new evil every minute, spewed out as fast as men can think them up. A world where pitching a criminal dwarf off a skyscraper to tell his fellow scum you’re back is a sane and rational act. The angels thought it would be hell for me. But they were wrong. Welcome Back, Frank. Says New York City. ”
“I looked the Devil in the eye and I blinked.”
“Maybe I am going to hell. I sent many deserving criminal souls to their doom. I have no regrets. They’ll be waiting for me. When I arrive, they’ll wish they’d sent me to heaven.”
“My family was killed by a mob boss because a mistake was made, now I’m on a mission to take down all wrong doers. There is no more Frank Castle, he died with his family. Vengeance is not a valid motive. It’s an emotional response. No, not vengeance. Punishment.”
“I’m not the one who dies, kid. I’m the one that does the killing. The thing is, every time I try to be someone different, that’s when the wrong people get hurt.”
“Everything changed.
I thought I thought I became something different.
But last night I had a little chat with my wife.
I sat by her grave, and I realized something.
This is always who I was.
And Maria she knew.
She knew what I was.
I’m just I’m not like you people.
You know, I can do things you can’t do.
Whatever that makes me it makes me.”
“Of all the things that I’ve done — memories, they never hurt me. The past is more than memories, it’s the devil you sold your soul to. He’s comin’. He’s comin’ to collect.”
“You cross over to that side of the line, you don’t get to come back from that. No, not ever.”
”Innocents suffer, and the guilty must be punished. My Battlefield symbols aren’t Red, White, and Blue — They’re blood red and personal.”
“You sit here and you’re all confused about this thing but you have it. You have everything. So hold on to it. Use two hands. And never let go.”
“You know, long as I was at war, I never thought about what would happen next. What I was gonna do when it was over. But I guess that’s it, you know. I think that might be the hardest part, the silence. The silence when the gunfire ends. How do you live in that? First time, as long as I can remember, I don’t have a war to fight. And I guess, if I’m gonna be honest, I just… I’m scared.”
“Day they died, I told Maria that I was done, that I wasn’t going back. I’d just got home the night before. And when I woke up, I saw her face. It just came at me. But, like, the second it did, I knew it was right. It was like this this weight got got lifted off my shoulders, you know? For both of us, you know? She knew it was right. The kids, too. I was just ready, you know? It was time. I just I wanted to be with them. But that day, we went to that park, and the kids were too old for that stupid carousel, but that day they just laughed, you know? They were laughing. We were all laughing like idiots. And that laughter, it stuck with me, you know? After I lost them, it would just- It would echo, you know? It was over and over. And it wasn’t just in my dreams. It was- like it was in my heart, you know? And I just I wanted to hold onto it. I wanted to live in it and just hear that laughter, but thing is, I can’t hear it anymore. It’s all I had. It’s gone. All I have is the looks on their faces after the bullets ripped through their bodies.”
“Cuz’ I think you’re a half measure. I think you’re a man who can’t finish the job. I think that you’re a coward. You know the one thing that you just can’t see? You know, you’re one bad day away from being me.”
“They laugh at the law. The rich ones who buy it and twist it to their whims. The other ones, who have nothing to lose, who don’t care about themselves, or other people. All the ones who think they’re above the law, or outside it, or beyond it. They know all the law is good for is to keep good people in line. And they all laugh. They laugh at the Law. But they don’t laugh at me.”
“They died from terminal stupidity.”
“You know, kid sometimes you find things and, uh they change your life.”
“One Batch. Two Batch. Penny and Dime.”
“We don’t get to pick the things that fix us, Red. Make us whole. Make us feel purpose. My moment of clarity? It came from the strangest of places.”
“You always have a guitar on deployment. Sit around, you know… You got time to, uh, you know, learn new songs, come up with new [tunes]. That’s how I met my wife.”
“You people, you call me the Punisher, ain’t that right? The Big Bad Punisher. Well, here I am! You want it, you got it! I am the Punisher! I’m right here! You want it, I’ll give it to you. And anybody who came here today to hear me whine, to hear me beg? Well, you can kiss my &$@!”
“Come on, God. Answer me.
For years I’m asking why,
Why are the innocent dead and the guilty alive?
Where is justice?
Where is punishment?
Or have you already answered,
have you already said to the world,
“Here is justice, here is punishment,”
here…. in me.”
“People think that torture is pain. It’s not pain. It’s time. It’s time to slowly realize that your life, it’s over. It’s over, Lieberman. Now all you got is the nightmare. You and me, we got time.”
“I hate [dang] bombs. [Dang] cowards. They think they’re gonna scare people into making them do what they want. They’re wrong. It just [ticks] people off, you know, brings them together, makes them stronger. New York doesn’t forget.”
“Only one way to cure a junkie. Same way you cure a killer.”
“Happiness is just a kick in the [pants] waiting to happen.”
“That’s a ten-inch blade and I’m guessing about a two-inch thick table. How much fat does it have to go through before that thing reaches your heart? Let’s find out”
“Remember my face! It’s the last thing you’re ever going to see … and I want you to carry the memory of it straight to HELL!”
“I once studied for the priesthood. It broke my mother’s heart when I dropped out. My tutor felt I was too quick to judge and lacked compassion. I wish they could see me now. I do not judge. I merely carry out his will. No one displays greater compassion, for I represent the victims. When my family wiped out by gangsters because we had accidentally witnessed a murder, I sought vengeance against all criminals. Since then I’ve grown wiser. Everything the priests told me makes sense. There is evil in the world, and it is church’s duty to wipe it out. Perhaps I’ve finally attained my priesthood.”
“Some people would tell you I’m crazy. They would be wrong. It’s not crazy when the state of the world makes you want to kill everyone responsible. It’s crazy when it doesn’t.”
“This is not vengeance. Revenge is not a valid motive. it’s an emotional response, no, not vengeance; punishment”
“Do you know the difference between justice and punishment?”
“I leave this as a declaration of intent, so no one will be confused. One: ‘Sic vis pacem, para bellum.’ Latin. The boot camp sergeant made us recite it like a prayer. “Sic vis pacem, para bellum – If you want peace, prepare for war. Two: Frank Castle is dead, he died with his family. Three: In certain extreme situations law is inadequate. In order to shame its inadequacy, it is necessary to act outside of the law, to pursue natural justice. This is not vengeance. Revenge is not a valid motive, it’s an emotional response. No, not vengeance, punishment.”
“Those who do evil to others – the killers, the rapists, psychos, sadists – you will come to know me well. Frank Castle is dead. Call me The Punisher.”