Heaven's Prisoners (1996)

Christopher Kriesa: Priest

Quotes 

• [first lines - in the confessional] 

  Dave Robicheaux : I want a drink. I want a drink all the time. Sometimes I wake up in the morning, my eyes pop open and I think I gotta have a drink. A beer, a Bloody Mary, whatever. Even now, and I don't know why. I haven't had a drink in three years.

  Priest : Three years, huh?

  Dave Robicheaux : Yeah. Sometimes I'll be talking with my wife and the whole time we're talking I'm thinking about this bar I used to go to. The whole conversation I'm thinking, I'd rather be in that bar than anywhere. The glasses all lined up. My seat right on the corner. All those colored bottles. The ice in my glass, that burn... Man, it felt real good going down. That'll never happen again. I can't drink, I know that. Drinking fucked up my whole life. Excuse me father, I'm sorry.

  Priest : That's alright, Dave. How is your wife?

  Dave Robicheaux : How's Annie?

  Priest : You love your wife, don't you? You have a good life now since you left the police department.

  Dave Robicheaux : Yes I do.

  Priest : And if you begin drinking again, what will happen?

  Dave Robicheaux : I would lose everything.

  Priest : But knowing this, knowing that you *would* lose everything, you would lose your wife, your business, and your self-respect, still, you want to drink.

  Dave Robicheaux : Yes I do.

  Priest : You're absolved of your sins. Go in peace.