[Asked if he would murder an infant without question:] Without question? No. I’d ask how much.

This quip trades on shock and dark humor to signal a persona: the speaker refuses the premise of “without question,” but replaces moral inquiry with transactional calculation. Read as a joke, it satirizes cynicism and the commodification of ethics—suggesting that even the most abhorrent act can be reframed as a matter of price. In Martin’s public image, such lines are often taken as evidence of a bleak, morally complicated worldview akin to his fiction, though the structure is that of a classic interview-wisecrack rather than a serious ethical claim. Its punchline depends on abrupt reversal: from conscience to commerce.