Nixon (1995)

David Hyde Pierce: John Dean

Photos 

Quotes 

• John Dean : Can I ask you a question? How the hell do you have the temerity to blackmail the President of the United States?

  E. Howard Hunt : That's not the question, John. The question is: why is he paying?

• John Dean : There's a cancer in the presidency and it's growing.

• [Nixon awkwardly puts his arm around John Dean, his legal counsel] 

  Richard M. Nixon : John, I want you to get away from this madhouse, these reporters, and go up to Camp David for the weekend. And I want you to write up a report. I want you to put everything you know about Watergate in there.

  John Dean : You want me to put it all in writing. Over my signature.

  Richard M. Nixon : Well, nobody knows more about this thing than you do, John. The details, that stuff, I don't know about.

  [a pause] 

  John Dean : Sir, I'm not going to be the scapegoat for this. Haldeman and Ehrlichman are in just as deep as me.

• John Dean : This is the sort of thing that Mafia people can do, washing money and so forth. We just don't know about these things because we're not criminals.