Lee Strasberg Quotes

Hyman Roth If I could only live to see it, to be there with you. What I wouldn't give for 20 more years! Here we are, protected, free to make our profits without ], the goddamn Justice Department and the F.B.I. 90 miles away, in partnership with a friendly government. Ninety miles! It's nothing! Just one small step, looking for a man who wants to be President of the United States, and having the cash to make it possible. Michael, we're bigger than U.S. Steel.

Michael Corleone I saw an interesting thing today. A rebel was being arrested, and rather than be taken alive, he pulled the pin on a grenade he had hidden in his jacket. He killed himself and the captain of the command.

Guest Ah, the rebels are lunatics!

Michael Maybe. But it occurred to me, the soldiers are paid to fight. The rebels aren't.

Hyman Roth What does that tell you?

Michael They can win.

Hyman Roth There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good. We made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada, made a fortune. Your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man, a man of vision and guts, and there isn't even a plaque, or a signpost or a statue of him in that town! Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry. I knew Moe. I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead, I let it go and I said to myself: this is the business we've chosen. I didn't ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business!

Hyman Roth I'm going to take a nap. When I wake up, if the money is on the table, I'll know I have a partner. If it isn't, I'll know I don't.

Hyman Roth I'd give four million just to be able to take a piss without it hurting.