Queer as Folk (2000–2005)

Robert Gant: Professor Ben Bruckner

Photos 

Quotes 

• [at Brian's stag party] 

  Michael : Can I have your attention, please? I would like to offer a toast to the memory of Brian Kinney. Out-going, friendly, some would say to a fault, he never met a man he didn't like.

  Ben : In his younger days, Brian dreamed of being a lawyer. He said, "I want to get innocent men off. I'll go to any length to get to the bottom of things."

  Emmett : Later on in life, he devoted himself to volunteer work. It's true. If he heard that someone was laid up, or flat on his back, he'd come time and time again until they felt better.

  Michael : So, now that he's gone, I'm sure that there's not a man in this room who wouldn't agree that he has left a hole that can never be filled. Here's to Brian!

• Debbie : It's three days. Three fucking days and not one fucking word. Except for this strange cryptic message - Don't worry, Ma, I'm all right.

  Justin : Doesn't sound strange or cryptic to me.

  Debbie : Well, you're not a mother.

  Ben : I just talked to him, Debbie, and he's all right.

  Debbie : He is not all right. A mother can always read between the lines. It's the first time since Michael's learned how to pick up a phone that we haven't talked three times a day.

  Justin : Three?

  Brian Kinney : I know, it explains so much.

• Ben : Instead of being our foster son, we'd like you to be our real son. That is, if you'd like us to be your fathers.

  Hunter : You mean, you wanna adopt me?

  Michael : As soon as possible, in case Prop 14 passes.

  [Hunter begins writing in his journal, talking aloud] 

  Hunter : Today Michael and Ben asked me to be their son... I said yes.

• Ben : Michael, we can't tell him not to use drugs if we do it ourselves!

  Michael : Of course we can! That's what being a parent is all about!

• [talking about Hunter leaving] 

  Michael : He was determined to leave so he left. There wasn't anything we could've done to stop him. Why are you beating yourself up over it?

  Ben : Because he was my blood. You still have a healthy baby daughter, Michael. She'll be loved, sent to a good school, raised in a world where she'll have every chance, every opportunity. Not like Hunter who had nothing. Less than nothing. I wanted to give him all those things he never had.

  Michael : So did I

  Ben : But I failed.

  Michael : You didn't fail.

  Ben : Yes I did. I did fail.

  Michael : We gave him a home, everything we could of ourselves to make him part of our family.

  Ben : Then why isn't he still here?

• [Ben opens the front door] 

  Ben : Brian!

  Brian : Excellent, Professor. You recognize the subject and can identify him by name.

  Ben : We've gone to bed.

  Brian : That's right, I forgot. The Stepford Husbands turn in early!

• Ben : Your friend Stockwell chased all the hustlers off Liberty Avenue - now they're right under our bedroom window.

  Brian Kinney : Say what you will about city living, you can't beat it for the convenience.