Paul NewmanQuotes

Connolly: [Murphy has decided to turn in two of his fellow officers, and also resign from the force. He tosses his badge on Connolly's desk] What's that?

Murphy: What does it look like? Being a stoolie is my last official act.

Connolly: You're a good cop, Murphy. But I don't think you'd be much good at anything else.

Murphy: I'm gonna run for president. What do you care?

Murphy: That's just talk, Andy, and you know it. We both know what's right. We ain't got the guts to do it.

Corelli: Guts? What are you talkin', guts? You mean brains, don't ya? Shit, I'll go through fire with you Murph, and you know I will. But I gotta live with these guys. You turn a cop in, and you're finished. Might as well quit the force and move out of the city. Even if you get a transfer, your rep follows you around. It just ain't worth it. Especially when you won't be doing anybody any good. I ain't a stool pigeon, Murph. I'm sorry.

Murphy: [about Isabella] Poor family, you're the oldest. You've got a lot of brothers and sisters. You got a brother in the joint. Your mother's sick. You got a scholarship to nursing school and you did real good, but you can't get a job anywhere but here. How'm I doin'?

Isabella: I don't know yet.

Murphy: Smoke a little reefer, fool around a little bit, you wanna get married but the selection in the neighborhood ain't that good.

Isabella: Finished?

Murphy: Yeah. Now you.

Isabella: OK, you come from three generations of cops. Your grandfather and your father and your brothers are all cops. All your friends are cops. It's a good thing there are some lady cops or you wouldn't have any sex life. You get drunk every night. You think all men are thieves and all women are sluts, and you don't trust anybody but your partner.

Murphy: [nodding in agreement] It's my round.

Isabella: [stops him] No, the drinks are on me.

Morgan: Hey Murph, what do you think of that son of a bitch, huh? Connolly. Captain Connolly. That clown they dress up as a cop. That fuckin banana. I mean, who does he think he's playin with, some chickenshit rookie? I've been on the job too long, you know what I mean? Yeah, they might get me for coopin'. Or for scorin a little nookie on the side. Or, maybe even shakin down a bodega. I never said I was the smartest guy in the world, but when he comes up with this phony witness shit...

Murphy: They got witnesses, Einstein.

Morgan: Yeah, deaf and dumb ones, right?

Murphy: Real live ones! The kind that put you away.

Morgan: [goes out after Murphy] Hey Murph! Murphy! Murphy, come here! Murphy! What are you talking about?

Murphy: They got the little chick that was hiding up there behind the junk pile!

Morgan: What chick?

Murphy: Yeah, they got me and Coreli, too... A-Number One police work... Poor kid wasn't botherin nobody, and you throw him off the roof!

Morgan: You shut the fuck up!

Murphy: You fuckin creep, I wish I was man enough to turn you in!

Corelli: That's a nice coat. How'd you like me to cut it open, let all the rats out.

Pimp: This coat cost more than you make in a year, motherfucker.

Murphy: He knows your name.

Corelli: Told you I was famous.

Corelli: Look on the bright side, though. We get our names in the papers, right? We're gonna be real serious on TV. Hey, you know, with your good looks, maybe you get to ball an anchor lady.

Murphy: Yeah?

Corelli: Yeah.

Murphy: [[Walter Cronkite] Not with my luck. If it was raining anchor ladies, I'd get hit with ].

Murphy: What is this, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral?

Finley: As long as there's cop killers around, pal, I'm gonna be ready.

Murphy: It don't make no difference how many guns you got. You only got two hands.

Murphy: You want to go out tonight, have a drink?

Isabella: Two hundred cops ask me out every day. Why should I say yes to you?

Murphy: Cause you say yes to all the others.

Isabella: Well, I guess that makes you the only cop in the Bronx I say no to.

Brick: Why you heard what Big Daddy said? That girl's got life in her body.

Mae: That's a lie.

Brick: No. No, truth is somethin desperate and Maggie's got it. Believe me, it is desperate and she has got it.

Mae: [to Gooper] Why don't you say somethin', honey?

Gooper: All right, honey. SHUT-UP!

Brick: Maggie?

Maggie: Yes?

Brick: Come on up here.

Maggie: [at the door to their bedroom] Yes, sir. Thank you for keepin still, for backin me up in my lie.

Brick: Maggie, we are through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door!

Big Daddy: I suddenly noticed that you don't call me Big Daddy any more. Ah, if you needed a Big Daddy, why didn't you come to me? You wanted somebody to lean on. Why Skipper and why not me? I'm your father! I'm Big Daddy. Me! Why didn't you come to your kinfolks, the peoples that love ya?

Brick: You don't know what love means. To you, it's just another four letter word.

Big Daddy: Why, you've got a mighty short memory. What was there that you wanted that I didn't buy for ya.

Brick: You can't buy love! You bought yourself a million dollars worth of junk. Look at it. Does it love you?

Big Daddy: Who'd you think I bought it for? Me? It's yours. The place, the money, every rotten thing is yours!

Brick: [pushes down and smashes vases, an old athletic trophy and other accumulated objects; destroys a life-sized poster of himself throwing a football and then breaks down in a fit of uncontrollable tears] I don't want things! Waste! Worthless! Worthless!

Big Daddy: Don't, son. Please don't cry, boy. That's funny. I never saw you cry before. How's that? Did you ever cry?

Brick: Can't you understand? I never wanted your place or your money or any—... I don't wanna own anything. All I wanted was a father, not a boss — I wanted you to love me.

Big Daddy: I did and I do.

Brick: No. Not me, and not Gooper, and not even Mama.

Big Daddy: That's a lie. I did love her. I give her anything, everything she wanted.

Brick: Things. Things, Papa. You gave her things. A house, a trip to Europe, all this junk, some jewelry, things. You gave her things, Papa, not love.

Big Daddy: I gave, I gave her an empire, boy.

Brick: The men who build empires die, and empires die, too.

Big Daddy: No. No, it won't. That's why I've got you and Gooper.

Brick: Look at Gooper. Look at what he's become. Is that what you wanted him to be? And look at me. You put it very well indeed. I'm a thirty-year-old kid, and pretty soon I'm gonna be a fifty-year-old kid. I don't know what to believe in. Now what's the good of livin if you've got nothin to believe in? There's gotta be some, some purpose in life, some meanin. Look at me. For the sake of God, look at me before it's too late. For once in your life, look at me as I really am. Look at me. I'm a failure. I'm a drunk. On my own in the open market, I'm not worth the price of a decent burial.

Big Daddy: You and Gooper and the rest of ya, blamin me for everythin', huh?

Brick: Nobody, just...We've known each other all my life, and we're strangers. Now you own twenty-eight thousand acres of the richest..., you own ten million dollars, you own a wife and two children, you own us but you don't love us.

Big Daddy: In my own way, I've...

Brick: No sir. You don't even like people. You wanted Gooper to have kids. You wanted me to have kids. Why?

Big Daddy: Cause I want a part of me to keep on living. I won't have an end with the grave.

Big Daddy: But it's always there in the morning, ain't it — the truth? And it's here right now. You're just feelin sorry for yourself. That's all it is — self-pity. You didn't kill Skipper. He killed himself. You and Skipper and millions like ya are livin in a kid's world, playin games, touchdowns, no worries, no responsibilities. Life ain't no damn football game. Life ain't just a bunch of high spots. You're a thirty-year-old kid. Soon you'll be a fifty-year-old kid, pretendin you're hearin cheers when there ain't any. Dreamin and drinkin your life away. Heroes in the real world live twenty-four hours a day, not just two hours in a game. Mendacity, you won't... you won't live with mendacity, but you're an expert at it. The truth is pain and sweat and payin bills and makin love to a woman that you don't love any more. Truth is dreams that don't come true and nobody prints your name in the paper til you die... The truth is, you never growed up. Grown-ups don't hang up on their friends... and they don't hang up on their wives... and they don't hang up on life. Now that's the truth and that's what you can't face!

Brick: Can you face the truth?

Big Daddy: Try me!

Brick: You or somebody else's truth?

Big Daddy: Bull. You're runnin again.

Brick: Yeah, I am runnin. Runnin from lies, lies like birthday congratulations and many happy returns of the day when there won't be any.

Brick: You said it yourself, Big Daddy. Mendacity is a system we live in.

Big Daddy: What are you runnin away from? Why'd you hang up on Skipper when he called you? Answer me. What did he say? Was it about him and Maggie?

Brick: He said they'd made love.

Big Daddy: And you believed him.

Brick: Yes.

Big Daddy: Then why haven't you thrown her out? Somethin's missin here. Now, now why did Skipper kill himself?

Brick: Cause somebody let him down. I let him down. When he called that night, I couldn't make much sense out of...There was one thing that was sure. Skipper was scared. Scared! It would happen that day on the football field, that I'd blame him, scared that I'd walk out on him. Skipper afraid - I couldn't believe that. I mean inside, he was real deep-down scared. And he broke like a rotten stick. He started cryin': I need you. He kept babblin': Help me! Help me! Me help him? How does one drownin man help another drownin man?

Big Daddy: So you hung up on him.

Brick: And then that phone started to ring again. And it rang and it rang and it wouldn't stop ringin'. And I lay in that hospital bed. I was unable to move or run from that sound and still, it kept ringin louder and louder! And the sound of that was like Skipper screamin for help. And I couldn't pick it up.

Big Daddy: So that's when he killed himself.

Brick: [Tears well up in his eyes] Yep. Cause I let him down. So that disgust with mendacity is really disgust with myself. And when I hear that click in my head, I don't hear the sound of that phone ringin anymore. And I can stop thinkin'. I'm ashamed, Big Daddy. That's why I'm a drunk. When I'm drunk, I can stand myself.

Brick: That's what you hated. Bein shut out.

Maggie: Not by the crowds, baby. By you, by the man I worshipped. That's why I hated Skipper.

Brick: You hated him so much that you got him drunk and went to bed with him.

Big Daddy: [After a long pause] Well, is that true?

Maggie: Oh Big Daddy, you don't think I ravished a football hero?

Brick: Skipper was drunk.

Maggie: So were you most of the time. I don't seem to make out so well with you.

Brick: Are you? Are you trying to say that nothing happened between you and Skipper?

Maggie: You know what happened!

Brick: I don't know what happened. I don't know, Maggie. Now I wasn't there. I couldn't play that Sunday. I wasn't in Chicago. I was in the hospital...

Maggie: But Skipper played. Oh, he played all right. Played his first professional game without Brick...Without you, Skipper was nothin'. Outside - big, tough, confident. Inside - pure jelly. You saw the game on TV. You saw what happened.

Brick: But I didn't see what happened in Skipper's hotel room. That little episode was not on TV. Go ahead, tell Big Daddy why you were in Skipper's room.

Maggie: [pause] He was sick, sick with drink and he wouldn't come out. He busted some furniture and the hotel manager said to stop him before he called the police. So I went to his room. I scratched on his door and begged him to let me in. He was half-crazy, violent and screamin one minute and weak and cryin the next. And all the time, scared stiff about you. So I said to him, maybe it was time we forgot about football. Maybe he ought to get a job and let me and Brick alone. I thought he'd hit me. He walked toward me with a funny sort of smile on his face. Then he did the strangest thing. He kissed me. That was the first time he'd ever touched me. And then I knew what I was gonna do. I'd get rid of Skipper. I'd show Brick that their deep true friendship was a big lie. I'd prove it by showin that Skipper would make love to the wife of his best friend. He didn't need any coaxin'. He was more than willin'. He even seemed to have the same idea. I was tryin to win back my husband. It didn't matter how. I would have done anythin - even that. At the last second, I-I got panicky. Supposin I lost you instead. Supposin you'd hate me instead of Skipper. So I ran. Nothin happened. I've tried to tell him a hundred times but he won't let me. Nothin happened.

Brick: Hallelujah - Saint Maggie! (He raises his drinking glass)

Maggie: I wanted to get rid of Skipper but not if it meant losin you. (To Big Daddy) He (Brick) blames me for Skipper's death. Maybe I got rid of Skipper. Skipper went out anyway. I didn't get rid of him at all. Isn't it an awful joke, honey? I lost you anyway.

Big Daddy: Now, why do ya drink?!

Brick: Give me my crutch.

Big Daddy: Tell me first.

Brick: No, you give me a drink first and I'll tell ya.

Big Daddy: Tell me first! First you gotta tell me!

Brick: All right, disgust!

Big Daddy: DISGUST WITH WHAT?

Brick: You strike a hard bargain.

Big Daddy: Boy, do you want liquor that bad?

Brick: [Big Daddy hands him his crutch] Yes, sir. I want liquor that bad.

Big Daddy: Now tell me, what are you disgusted with?

Brick: Mendacity. You know what that is. It's lies and liars.

Big Daddy: Who's been lyin to ya? Maggie? Has your wife been lyin to ya?

Brick: No. Not one lie, not one person. The whole thing.

Brick: Somethin hasn't happened yet.

Big Daddy: What's that?

Brick: A click in my head.

Big Daddy: Did you say "click"?

Brick: Yes sir, the click in my head that makes me feel peaceful.

Big Daddy: Boy, sometimes you worry me.

Brick: It's like a switch, clickin off in my head. Turns the hot light off and the cool one on, and all of a sudden there's peace.

Big Daddy: Boy, you're, you're a real alcoholic!

Brick: That is the truth. Yes, sir, I am an alcoholic. So if you'd just excuse me...

Big Daddy: [grabbing him] No, I won't excuse you.

Brick: Now I'm waitin for that click and I don't get it. Listen, I'm all alone. I'm talkin to no one where there's absolute quiet.

Big Daddy: You'll hear plenty of that in the grave soon enough. But right now, we're gonna sit down and talk this over.

Brick: This talk is like all the others. It gets nowhere, nowhere, and it's painful.

Maggie: I think I made my mistake when I tried to tell you about Skipper. That's where I made my fatal error.

Brick: Maggie...

Maggie: I never should have confessed...

Brick: Maggie, now you shut-up about Skipper. I mean it, you got to shut up about Skipper.

Maggie: The laws of silence won't work about that. Not about Skipper and us. It's like lockin the door on the fire in hopes of forgettin the house is burnin - but not lookin at a fire doesn't put it out. This time, I'm gonna finish. That night in a hotel room, Skipper and I...

Brick: I don't want to hear about it.

Maggie: Why won't you face the truth just once about Skipper? About me? About yourself?

Brick: Do you want me to hit you with this crutch?

Maggie: You're still blamin me for Skipper's death.

Brick: Now don't you know that I could kill you with this crutch?

Maggie: Good Lord, man, d'you think I'd care if you did?

Brick: Skipper and I had a friendship. Now why won't you let it alone?

Maggie: It's got to be told.

Brick: But I don't want to hear it.

Maggie: It's got to be told and you never let me tell it. I love you, and that's worth fightin for. Not Skipper. Skipper was no good.

Brick: Maggie!

Maggie: Maybe I'm no good either - nobody's good. But Brick, Skipper IS DEAD! And I'M ALIVE!

Brick: Maggie!

Maggie: Maggie the Cat is ALIVE! I'M ALIVE! Why are you afraid of the truth?

Brick: [hurls his crutch at her but misses] Truth!

Maggie: Oh, poor Big Daddy. I'm fond of him. I'm genuinely fond of that old man. I really am, you know. Oh, when he finds out. I wouldn't want to be the one to tell him. That's why you want to go now.

Brick: Yeah, that's why I want to leave now. You gotta do this for me, Maggie, please.

Maggie: And leave the field to Gooper and that wife of his? No sir. Let's face facts, baby. You're a drinker, and that takes money.

Brick: I don't want his money.

Maggie: Are you ready to settle for ten cent beer? Cause that's just what Gooper will dole out to you when they freeze you out. They got a plan, baby. Oh you should have heard them layin it on Big Daddy - a mile a minute. Big Mama's already on their side. You're a drinker and I'm childless. We got to beat that plan. We just got to. I-I been so disgustingly poor all my life. That's the truth, Brick.

Brick: Have you, Maggie?

Maggie: You-you don't know what it's like to have to suck up to people you can't stand just cause they have money. You don't know what it's like. Never havin any clothes. That dress I married you in was a hand-me-down from a snotty rich cousin I hated. You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it. Where did I fail you? Where did I make my mistake? Make that your last drink until after the party, please honey!

Brick: Big Daddy! Now what makes him so big? His big heart? His big belly? Or his big money?

Maggie: The heat has made you cross.

Brick: Give me my crutch.

Maggie: Why don't you put on your nice silk pajamas, honey, and come on down to the party? There's a lovely cool breeze.

Brick: Give me my crutch, Maggie.

Maggie: [He turns and stiffly ignores her] Lean on me, baby. You've got a nice smell about you. Is your bath water cool?

Brick: No.

Maggie: I know somethin that would make you feel cool and fresh. Alcohol rub. Cologne.

Brick: No thanks. We'd smell alike. Like a couple of cats in the heat.

Maggie: It's cool on the lawn.

Brick: I'm not goin down there, Maggie, not for you and not for Big Daddy.

Maggie: At least you can give him his present that I remembered to buy for you for his birthday. Do you think you could write a few words on this card?

Brick: You write somethin Maggie.

Maggie: It's got to be your handwritin'. It's your present. It's got to be your handwritin'.

Brick: I didn't get him a present.

Maggie: Well, what's the difference?!

Brick: Then if there's no difference, you write the card.

Maggie: And have him know you didn't remember his birthday?

Brick: I didn't remember.

Maggie: Well, you don't have to prove it to him. Just-just write Love, Brick for heaven's sakes.

Brick: NO!

Maggie: You've got to.

Brick: I don't have to do anything I don't want to! Now you keep forgettin the conditions on which I agreed to stay on livin with you.

Maggie: I'm not living with you. We occupy the same cage, that's all. You know, that's the first time you've raised your voice in a long time. Crack in the stone wall? I think that's a fine sign. Mighty fine.

Maggie: Why can't you lose your good looks, Brick? Most drinkin men lose theirs. Why can't you? I think you've even gotten better-lookin since you went on the bottle. You were such a wonderful lover... You were so excitin to be in love with. Mostly, I guess, cause you were... If I thought you'd never never make love to me again... why, I'd find me the longest, sharpest knife I could and I'd stick it straight into my heart. I'd do that. Oh, Brick, how long does this have to go on? This punishment? Haven't I served my term? Can't I apply for a pardon?

Brick: Lately, that finishin school voice of yours sounds like you was runnin upstairs to tell somebody the house is on fire.

Maggie: Is it any wonder? You know what I feel like? I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.

Brick: Then jump off the roof, Maggie, jump off it. Now cats jump off roofs and they land uninjured. Do it. Jump.

Maggie: Jump where? Into what?

Brick: Take a lover.

Maggie: I don't deserve that! I can't see any man but you. With my eyes closed, I just see you. Why can't you get ugly, Brick? Why can't you please get fat or ugly or somethin so I can stand it?

Brick: You'll make out fine. Your kind always does.

Maggie: Oh, I'm more determined than you think. I'll win all right.

Brick: Win what? What is, uh, the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?

Maggie: Just stayin on it, I guess. As long as she can.

Maggie: Why are you looking at me like that?

Brick: Like what, Maggie?

Maggie: Like you were just lookin'.

Brick: I wasn't conscious of lookin at you, Maggie.

Maggie: [seductively; He coldly turns from her and rises on his crutches] I was conscious of it. If you were thinkin the same thing I was...

Brick: No, Maggie.

Maggie: Why not?!

Brick: Will you please keep your voice down.

Maggie: No! I know you better than you think. I've seen that look before. And I know what it used to mean. And it still means the same thing now.

Brick: You're not the same woman now, Maggie.

Maggie: Oh, don't you think I know that? Don't you think I know that...

Brick: Know what, Maggie?

Maggie: That I've gone through this horrible transformation, that I've become hard and frantic and cruel...Oh Brick, I get so lonely.

Brick: Everybody gets that.

Maggie: Living with somebody you love can be lonelier than living entirely alone - if the one you love doesn't love you.

Brick: Would you like to live alone, Maggie?

Maggie: No! No, I wouldn't.

Maggie: We've got one thing on our side. No, two things. Are my seams straight? Big Daddy dotes on you, honey. He just can't stand Brother Man and his wife...that fertility monster. She's odious to him. I can tell. Just like I can tell he likes me. That's the second thing we've got on our side. He likes me. The way he looks me up and down, and over... He's still got an eye for girls.

Brick: That kind of talk is disgusting.

Maggie: Anybody ever tell you you were a back-aching Puritan? I think it's mighty fine how that old fellow, on death's doorstep takes in my shape with what I consider deserved appreciation.

Hank Anderson: This thing's a powder keg!

Hank Anderson: I was down in the crater Duran!

Hank Anderson: It's bad down here but it's worse up there!

Harry Ross: I also remember a movie your husband made. He shot 12 guys with a 6-shot revolver. I ain't gonna argue with that kind of marksmanship.

Frank Galvin: I changed my life today, what did you do?

Laura Fischer: I changed my room at the hotel.

Frank Galvin: Why did you do that?

Laura Fischer: TV didn't work.

Frank Galvin: [after the church has offered a check for $210,000 to settle the case] How did you settle on the amount?

Bishop Brophy: We thought it was just.

Frank Galvin: You thought it was just?

Bishop Brophy: Yes.

Frank Galvin: Because it struck me, um, how neatly three went into this figure: 210,000. That means I would keep seventy.

Bishop Brophy: That was our insurance company's recommendation.

Frank Galvin: Yes, that would be.

Bishop Brophy: Nothing we can do can make that woman well.

Frank Galvin: And no one will know the truth.

Bishop Brophy: What is the truth?

Frank Galvin: That that poor girl put her trust into the... into the hands of two men who took her life. She's in a coma. Her life is gone. She has no home, no family. She's tied to a machine. She has no friends. And the people who should care for her - her doctors... and you and me - have been bought off to look the other way. We've been paid to look the other way. I came here to take your money. I brought snapshots to show you so I could get your money. I can't do it; I can't take it. Cause if I take the money I'm lost. I'll just be a... rich ambulance chaser. I can't do it. I can't take it.

Mickey Morrissey: [trying to convince Frank not to take the case to trial] Do you know who the attorney for the Archdiocese is? Ed Concannon!

Frank Galvin: He's a good man...

Mickey Morrissey: He's a good man? Heh, heh, he's the Prince of fucking Darkness! He'll have people testifying they saw her waterskiing in Marblehead last summer. Now look, Frank, don't fuck with this case!

Frank Galvin: You know, so much of the time we're just lost. We say, "Please, God, tell us what is right; tell us what is true." And there is no justice: the rich win, the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time, we become dead... a little dead. We think of ourselves as victims... and we become victims. We become... we become weak. We doubt ourselves, we doubt our beliefs. We doubt our institutions. And we doubt the law. But today you are the law. You ARE the law. Not some book... not the lawyers... not the, a marble statue... or the trappings of the court. See those are just symbols of our desire to be just. They are... they are, in fact, a prayer: a fervent and a frightened prayer. In my religion, they say, "Act as if ye had faith... and faith will be given to you." IF... if we are to have faith in justice, we need only to believe in ourselves. And ACT with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts.

Frank Galvin: So Pat says, he says, "They got this new bar... and you go inside and for half a buck you get a beer, a free lunch and they take you in the back room - they get you laid... Mike says, "Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Do you mean to say there's a new bar and you go inside and for a half a buck they give you a beer, a free lunch and they take you in the back room and they get you laid?" Pat says, "That's right." "Have you ever been in the bar?" And he says, "No, but me sister has.

Frank Galvin: [to Judge Hoyle] You couldn't hack it as a lawyer. You were a bag man for the boys downtown and you still are, I know about you.

Doug Roberts: Harry?

Harry Jernigan: (picking up the phone) Jernigan.

Jernigan: What? Dammit man, you should have sent a man up there!

Jernigan: How do you expect her to hear a phone call? She's deaf!

Jernigan: Sure the kids can hear!

Jernigan: I don't know, maybe they were in the shower or something when you called!

Kappy: (in background, speaking into his radio) Forward Command!

Doug Roberts: And they're celebrating... a party.

Chief O'Halloran: Party? What party? Where?

Doug Roberts: In the Promenade Room. 300 people.

Chief O'Halloran: Well, why didn't you get them the hell out of there?

Doug Roberts: Why don't you go upstairs and talk to Duncan? He ain't exactly listening to me.

Chief O'Halloran: I will.

Chief O'Halloran: (to Doug) I want to see all your floor plans, 81 to 85.

Doug Roberts: Gotcha.

Chief O'Halloran: This is what I'm worried about, all those beams and glass.

Kappy: Chief, this is Roberts, the architect.

Chief O'Halloran: What do we got here Kappy?

Kappy: Fire started, 81st floor, storage room. This is a bad one. Smoke is so thick we can't tell how far it's spread.

Chief O'Halloran: What about your exhaust system?

Doug Roberts: Well it should have reversed automatically. It must have been a motor burn-out or something.

Chief O'Halloran: Sprinklers?

Doug Roberts: They're not working on 81.

Chief O'Halloran: Why not?

Doug Roberts: I don't know.

Chief O'Halloran: Jim?

Firefighter: Yes sir.

Chief O'Halloran: Alright, give us a quick refresher on your standpipe system.

Doug Roberts: Well, we got outlets on every floor, both 3 1/2" inch.

Chief O'Halloran: GPM?

Doug Roberts: 1500 from Ground to 68, 1000 from 68 to 100 and 500 from there to the roof.

Chief O'Halloran: Alright, you sure these elevators are programmed for emergency service?

Doug Roberts: These two are.

Chief O'Halloran: What floor do you keep your plans on?

Doug Roberts: 79, my office.

Chief O'Halloran: That's good, that's 2 floors below the fire. Alright, that'll be our Forward Command. Alright men, take up the equipment. Alright, let's go. (Roberts, O'Halloran, Kappy and a fireman board the elevator for the 79th floor)

Chief O'Halloran: Ok. Phew...architects.

Doug Roberts: Yeah, it's all our fault.

Chief O'Halloran: Now you know there's no sure way for us to fight a fire in anything over the 7th floor. But you guys just keep building them as high as you can.

Doug Roberts: Hey, are you here to take me on, or the fire?

Doug Roberts: (on the phone to security) Hello, this is 81, we've had an accident up here, a man's been burned, get an ambulance! Yes, right away!

Security Chief Harry Jernigan: (as he and another man drag the badly injured Will Giddings to safety) Roberts, call Duncan in the tower! They got a lot of people there!

James Duncan: Yeah Doug, we were getting worried about you. Susan's here, Senator Parker, the Mayor and his wife. Everybody wants to know why the world's greatest architect isn't here.

Doug Roberts: Never mind about that. Will Giddings has been pretty badly burned.

James Duncan: (surprised) Will Giddings burned? How?!

Doug Roberts: Look, I've already got an ambulance coming but you better think about getting those people upstairs down on the ground floor. (pause as Duncan asks why) What for? WE'VE GOT A FIRE HERE! (pause as Duncan asks the severity of the fire) Well, I think it's under control but....

James Duncan: Well then, uh, why the urgency?

Doug Roberts: Urgency?! Hey Dunc if that fire was caused by fluky wiring in the building we could get fires breaking out everywhere!

James Duncan: Doug, I think you're overreacting. Now I feel sorry for Will Giddings but he'll be taken care of. (Duncan covers the speaker on the phone) But I am not going to concern myself with a fire in a storage room on 81 because it can't possibly affect us up here. Not in this building! Now have someone call me when the fire department arrives. In the meantime, get in your dinner jacket and come on up here and join the party. Now come on! (Duncan hangs up)

Doug Roberts: I mean-(Roberts angrily hangs up)

Will Giddings: Did you find Simmons?

Doug Roberts: Yeah, I found him......

Will Giddings: Well did he or didn’t he change your specs?

Doug Roberts: He didn’t admit it, but two bucks will get you ten he did.

Will Giddings: Payoffs and kickbacks, that’s the only way he could have swung it (assembles a pile of plans with the electrical specifications). Well, here you are. It's your original specs. Zone one only, but we gotta start somewhere.

Doug Roberts: Son of a bitch gave us an impossible job.

Roger Simmons: Hi Doug. Honey.

Patty Duncan Simmons: Hello.

Roger Simmons: What are you drinking these days?

Doug Roberts: Nothing right now.

Roger Simmons: Well, welcome back from the wilderness. To what do we owe the pleasure?

Doug Roberts: Callahan was testing a backup generator. There was a power surge and a systems failure.

Roger Simmons: How can that be?

Doug Roberts: Well it can't be, theoretically. Unless you've been screwing around with the electrical specifications.

Roger Simmons: That's being rather blunt, isn't it?

Doug Roberts: You betcha.

Roger Simmons: Well then you'll understand my being equally blunt. What the hell business is it of yours anyway?

Doug Roberts: Well I'm just wondering what kind of kickbacks were involved.

Roger Simmons: I don't have to take crap from you.

Doug Roberts: Now listen. We had an electrical flare-up in the main utility room. It looked to me like some of that wiring wasn't exactly what I asked for.

Roger Simmons: Every piece of wire I put in that building is strictly up to code, inspected and approved.

Doug Roberts: The code's not enough for that building. And you know it. That's why I asked for installations that were way, way above standard!

Roger Simmons: Buddy you live in a dream world. I deal in realities.

Doug Roberts: I want your wiring diagrams and copies of your work orders.

Roger Simmons: It would take weeks to get that all together and someone with a lot more clout than you to make me do it!

Doug Roberts: In my office, tomorrow, 9:00. (Roberts leaves)

Patty Duncan Simmons: They say he used to wrestle grizzly bears in Montana. Of course he was younger then, probably in better condition.

Roger Simmons: You must have enjoyed all this immensely.

Patty Duncan Simmons: No, I didn't. Actually, I'm depressed for both of us.

Roger Simmons: What did you expect me do - punch him in the nose?

Patty Duncan Simmons: Roger, if you've done anything to Dad's building, God help you!

Roger Simmons: Baby I don't need God's help, or your old man's, not anymore. So don't expect me to shake everytime Daddy barks, even if that's what you want me to do.

Patty Duncan Simmons: All I want is the man I thought I married! But I guess we're running out of reasons to stay married, aren't we?

Roger Simmons: It's getting late. We mustn't miss the party.

James Duncan: I know, I know. Callahan called me. Now just how bad is it?

Doug Roberts: Depends on how good your imagination is. (Roberts drops the burned wire on Duncan's desk) Jesus Christ. Specs called for Conduit safety covering!

James Duncan: How many fuse terminals did you check?

Doug Roberts: How many do I have to?

James Duncan: Yes?

Duncan's Secretary: Mr. Bigelow's here, sir.

James Duncan: Ok, send him in. Now Doug, one piece of scorched wire from a burned-out circuit breaker is hardly conclusive.

Doug Roberts: Maybe not. But after that I'm worried about what other shocks we're in for!

Dan Bigelow: Will, Doug, J.D., wait til you see this. (Bigelow opens a box containing golden scissors for the Tower's dedication but the men do not react) What happened? Somebody hang the wallpaper upside down?

James Duncan: We have an equipment problem.

Dan Bigelow: No problem in the Tower is there?

Doug Roberts: Could be.

James Duncan: Oh now come on Doug. You're just guessing!

Doug Roberts: Alright I'm just guessing. But I wanna talk to that son-in-law of yours and I wanna talk to him right away.

James Duncan: Ok. (Talking to his secretary on the intercom) Get me Roger Simmons.

Duncan's Secretary: Yes, sir.

Will Giddings: We're going to check this thing out Mr. Duncan, I guarantee you.

James Duncan: Sure, sure, we're all going to check it out.

Dan Bigelow: (clearly confused) I'm missing something.

Doug Roberts: We damn near had a fire.

Doug Roberts: Yeah. A fire.

Dan Bigelow: In this building? Come on.

Will Giddings: You know we haven't even finished installing the safety equipment? The party should have been put off for at least another month...

James Duncan: (Duncan cuts Giddings off) Now hold it Will, hold it! Everybody's overreacting! (Intercom buzzes) Yes?

Duncan's Secretary: Mr. Simmons is out, sir.

James Duncan: (clearly frustrated at this development) Out where?

Duncan's Secretary: They don't know, sir, but I left word for him to call.

James Duncan: (to his secretary) Ok. (pauses before speaking to Doug) We'll talk to Roger tomorrow. And then we'll decide what to do, that's ok isn't it?

Doug Roberts: No, it won't wait! (Roberts and Giddings leave)

Doug Roberts: Can I talk at all?

Susan Franklin: No. It's my lunch hour.

Doug Roberts: Well I'm not a cheeseburger, you know.

Susan Franklin: You're better - all protein, no bread. All I need to go with you is about eight glasses of water.

Doug Roberts: All I need to go with you is in that suitcase over there.

Susan Franklin: What's in that suitcase over there?

Doug Roberts: I got about $140 worth of vulgar underwear for ya.

Susan Franklin: First things first. (Susan opens a door to a private room)

Doug Roberts: That's nice.

Susan Franklin: Years from now when they talk about this and they will, remember to tell them that it was my idea.

Doug Roberts: Yeah, right.

James Duncan: So, how was it?

Doug Roberts: Good.

James Duncan: You're gonna go ahead, huh?

Doug Roberts: Full steam.

James Duncan: Anything I can do to change your mind?

Doug Roberts: Nope, no way.

James Duncan: You know there's an old saying that, uh, No matter how hot it gets up there during the day, there's -

Doug Roberts: -not a damn thing to do in the night', right?

James Duncan: That's right. Now just what the hell are you gonna do at night in the middle of nowhere?

Doug Roberts: Sleep like a winner.

James Duncan: Doug, you're a city boy with a low threshold for boredom. You'll be back in two weeks. (The elevator arrives on the 65th floor) Can you come in the office for a minute?

Doug Roberts: I got people waiting upstairs.

James Duncan: Well what I wanted to tell you is that Senator Parker's flying in for the dedication tonight. And he's almost guaranteed the Urban Renewal contract. Now do you know what that means? Skyscrapers like this all over the country! You design em, I'll build em.

Doug Roberts: (Boarding an elevator for the 79th floor) Jim I think you suffer from an edifice complex.

James Duncan: You'll never leave.

Doug Roberts: Right after the party. Come on downstairs and watch me burn my black tie.

Doug Roberts: I don't know. Maybe they just oughta leave it the way it is. Kind of a shrine to all the the bullshit in the world.

Doug Roberts: Urgency? Hey Dunc, if that fire was caused by fluky wiring in this building, we could get fires breaking out EVERYWHERE!!!

Luigi: Mr. Moose-burger, I give-a you pants a nice-a dooble stitch, eh? Make em strong, and they look-a real sharp.

Sidney J. Mussburger: No, single stitch is fine.

Luigi: But the double stitch will last forever.

Sidney J. Mussburger: Why on earth would I want a double stitch? To pad your account? Single stitch is fine.

Luigi: Ah, what the heck. Mr. Moose-burger is such a nice man, I'm gonna give him a double stitch anyway. That's some strong stitch, you bet.

Sidney J. Mussburger: Let's get to know one another, shall we? Let's chat man to man. Now you're from the basement, aren't you? And weren't blessed with much... education?

Norville Barnes: Well, I am college graduate.

Sidney J. Mussburger: But you didn't excel in your studies?

Norville Barnes: Well, I made the Dean's List.

Sidney J. Mussburger: Oh.

Norville Barnes: At the Muncie College of Business Administration.

Sidney J. Mussburger: [laughs] Oh. And your friends called you "jerk" didn't they?

Norville Barnes: No.

Sidney J. Mussburger: Dope? Dipstick? Lamebrain? Schmoe? Not even behind you back?

Norville Barnes: No, as a matter of fact they voted me most likely to succeed.

Sidney J. Mussburger: You're fired.

Sidney J. Mussburger: This better be good. I'm in a bad mood.

Norville Barnes: [Shows him the drawing of the circle, but sees that it's upside down and flips it over] Well, sir. I've got something for you from the mailroom, but first if I could just take a minute or so from your very valuable time to show you a little something I've been working on for the last two or three years. . You know, for kids! Which is perfect for Hudsucker not that I claim to be any great genius; like they say, inspiration is ninty-nine percent perspiration, and in my case I'd say it's at least twice that, but I gotta tell ya, Mr. Mussburger, sir, this sweet baby-

Sidney J. Mussburger: Wait a minute!

Sidney J. Mussburger: [[w:Montecristo (cigar)|Montecristo] It's a pity to waste a whole ].

Board Member 1: He could have opened the window.

Board Member 2: Waring Hudsucker never did anything the easy way.

Myron Addison: [crying] Yeah, but why? Why did he do it? Everything was going so well.

Sidney J. Mussburger: What am I, a head shrinker? Maybe the man was unhappy.

Myron Addison: He didn't look unhappy.

Board Member 4: He didn't look rich.

Board Member 5: Waring Hudsucker was never an easy man to figure out. He built this company with his bare hands, every step he took was a step up... except of course this last one.

Sidney J. Mussburger: Sure, sure, he was a swell fella. But when the president, chairman of the board, and owner of eighty-seven precent of the company stock drops... forty-four floors...

Board Member 6: Forty-five!

Board Member 7: Counting the mezzanine.

Sidney J. Mussburger: ...then the company too has a problem. Stillson, what exactly is the disposition of Waring's stock?

Stillson: Well, as you know, Hud left no will and had no family. The company bylaws are quite clear in that event. His entire portfolio will be converted into common stock and be sold over the counter as of the first of the fiscal year following his demise.

Sidney J. Mussburger: Meaning?

Stillson: Well, meaning simply that Waring's stock, and control of the company, will be made available to the public January 1st.

Sidney J. Mussburger: Do you mean to say that any slob in a smelly T-shirt will be able to buy Hudsucker's stock?

Stillson: The company bylaws are quite clear.

Myron Addison: My God, you're animals! How can you discuss his stock when the man has just leapt forty-five floors?

Board Member 6: Forty-four!

Board Member 7: Not counting the mezzanine.

Sidney J. Mussburger: Quit showboating, Addison, the man is gone. The question now is whether we're going to let John Q. Public just waltz in here and buy our company!

Board Member 4: What are you suggesting Sidney? Certainly we can't afford to buy an controlling interest.

Sidney J. Mussburger: Not while the stock is this strong. How soon before Hud's paper hits the market?

Board Member 8: January 1st.

Board Member 2: Thirty days.

Board Member 4: Four weeks.

Board Member 5: A month at the most!

Sidney J. Mussburger: One month... to make the blue chip investment of the century look like a round-trip ticket on the Titanic.

Board Member 7: We play up the fact that Hud is dead...

All: Long live the Hud!

Board Member 4: We depress the stock...

Board Member 5: ...to the point where we can buy back fifty percent!

Board Member 6: Fifty-one.

Board Member 7: Not counting the mezzanine.

Board Member 5: It could work!

Board Member 3: It should work.

Board Member 4: It would work!

Sidney J. Mussburger: It's working already. Waring Hudsucker is abstract art on Madison Avenue. What we need now is a new president who will inspire panic in the stockholder.

Board Member 6: A puppet!

Board Member 5: A proxy!

Board Member 2: A pawn!

Sidney J. Mussburger: Sure, sure. Some jerk we can really push around.

Sidney J. Mussburger: This better be good. I'm in a bad mood.

Sidney J. Mussburger: Not that way, through the door!

Sidney J. Mussburger: Up! Up on your feet! We don't crawl here at Hudsucker Industries.

Sidney J. Mussburger: [repeated line] Sure, sure.

Henry Gondorff: Sorry I'm late, guys, I was takin a crap.

Henry Gondorff: No sense being a grifter if it's the same as bein a citizen.

Eddie Felson: Now why did I do it, Sarah, why did I do it? I could've beat that guy, I could've beat him cold. He never would have known. But I just had to show him. Just had to show those creeps and those punks what the game is like when it's great, when it's really great. You know, like anything can be great, anything can be great. I don't care — brick-laying can be great if a guy knows. If he knows what he's doin and why and if he can make it come off.

Eddie Felson: [After discovering that Charlie kept some money from him] With that fifteen hundred, I could have beat him. That's all I needed, Charlie... You'd love to keep me hustlin for ya, huh, wouldn't ya? I mean, a couple more years with me scufflin around in them little towns and those back alleys, you might make yourself enough to get a little pool room back in Oakland, six tables and a handbook on the side... Lay down and die by yourself.

Eddie Felson: He is great! Geez, that old fat man. Look at the way he moves, like a dancer... And those fingers, them marshmellow fingers. And that stroke, it's like he's, uh, like he's playin a violin or somethin.

Vincent Lauria: [about to play pool] Hey Eddie, what are you going to do when I kick your ass?

Eddie Felson: Pick myself up and let you kick me again.

Vincent Lauria: Oh yeah?

Eddie Felson: [pause] Yeah. Just don't put the money in the bank, kid. Because if I don't whip you now, I'm gonna whip you next month in Dallas.

Carmen: You mean Houston - there's nothing coming up in Dallas.

Eddie Felson: Houston, Dallas... And if not then, then the month after that, in New Orleans.

Vincent Lauria: Oh yeah? What makes you so sure?

Eddie Felson: [stares at Vincent for a second, then gets ready to break] Hey - I'm back.

Carmen: You really think Vincent's that good?

Eddie Felson: Well, he's got the eye, he's got the stroke, he's got the flake... he's got the flake down cold. But can he flake on and flake off? I don't know. That's not clear.

Eddie Felson: [walking into a crowded pool hall] Do you smell that?

Vincent Lauria: What, smoke?

Carmen: No, Money...

Vincent Lauria: [Eddie is pushing to go on the road] This is my job, Eddie.

Eddie Felson: You think so? Hmmm. That's funny. I don't think so. I think it's your problem.

Eddie Felson: How much did you take off Moselle? I heard a hundred...

Vincent Lauria: One fifty!

Eddie Felson: [sarcastically] A hundred and fifty?

Vincent Lauria: That's right, a hundred and fifty.

Vincent Lauria: You walk into a shoe store with a hundred and fifty bucks, you come out with one shoe! We were working on five thousand!

Eddie Felson: You're some piece of work... You're also a natural character.

Vincent Lauria: [to Carmen] You see? I been tellin her that. I got natural character.

Eddie Felson: That's not what I said, kid. I said you are a natural character; you're an incredible flake.

Eddie Felson: But that's a gift. Some guys spend half their lives trying to invent something like that. You walk into a pool room with that go-go-go, the guys'll be killing each other, trying to get to you. You got that... But I'll tell you something, kiddo. You couldn't find Big Time if you had a road map.

Butch Cassidy: The specialty of the house and it's still movin

Butch Cassidy: Who are those guys?

Butch Cassidy: Not to be a sore loser, but, when this is done if I'm dead, kill him.

Butch Cassidy: [Butch throws his bicycle away] The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles.

Butch Cassidy: If he'd just pay me what he's spending to make me stop robbing him, I'd stop robbing him.

Butch Cassidy: Boy, y'know, every time I see Hole in the Wall again, it's like seeing it fresh for the first time, and every time that happens, I keep asking myself the same question, How can I be so damn stupid as to keep comin back here?

Hud Bannon: Give me a clean white shirt.

Alma Brown: Boy, you're real big with the "please" and "thank you," aren't you?

Hud Bannon: Please get up off your lazy butt and get me a clean white shirt. Thank you.

Hud Bannon: You're a fine housekeeper, a fine cook, and a fine laundress. What else are you good at?

Alma Brown: Taking care of myself.

Hud Bannon: A piece of corn-silk like you shouldn't need to.

Alma Brown: That's what my first husband used to tell me. Then he took my wallet and my gasoline card, left me stranded at a hotel in downtown Albuquerque.

Hud Bannon: What did you do, wear your curlers to bed? Is that why he made for the hills?

Alma Brown: He was a gambler. He's probably up at Vegas right now, dealing all night and losing it back in the daytime.

Hud Bannon: Man like that sounds no better than a heel.

Alma Brown: Aren't you all?

Hud Bannon: Honey, don't go shooting all the dogs just because one of them's got fleas.

Alma Brown: I was married to Ed for six years. Only thing he was ever good for was scratching my back where I couldn't reach it.

Hud Bannon: You still got that itch?

Alma Brown: Off and on.

Hud Bannon: Well, let me know when it gets to bothering you.

Alma Brown: You and your car smell like Chanel #5. You weren't riding the range this afternoon, were you?

Hud Bannon: I sure wasn't.

Alma Brown: How does Truman Peters's wife make time for you, in the middle of the day?

Hud Bannon: She just drops everything for me, honey.

Alma Brown: I guess it beats housework, doesn't it?

Alma Brown: Why do you ALWAYS park that thing in my flowers!?

Hud Bannon: Because you keep planting them where I park, that's why.

Hud Bannon: ...Where's my Jack Daniels?

Alma Brown: I'd say you already drank it.

Alma Brown: I don't like sudden passes.

Hud Bannon: Well, there's another coming up on your right.

Alma Brown: Don't you ever ask?

Hud Bannon: The only question I ever ask any woman is, "What time is your husband coming home?" Now come on, let's get our shoelaces untied.

Alma Brown: I've been asked with more finesse in my day.

Hud Bannon: I wouldn't want to come off crude. Want some perfume?

Alma Brown: Sure; how about some colored beads and wampum, while you're at it?

Hud Bannon: Whatever I need to make you trade.

Alma Brown: Thanks, but I've done my time with one cold-blooded bastard; I'm not looking for another.

Hud Bannon: It's too late, honey. You've already found him.

Lonnie Bannon: I wouldn't mind driving her the long way home.

Hud Bannon: You ought to take a crack at that. Get all the good you can out of seventeen cause it sure wears out in one hell of a hurry.

Homer Bannon: That's your solution for getting out of a tight fix? To pass bad beef on to my neighbors who wouldn't know what they was getting? Or risk starting an epidemic in the entire country?

Hud Bannon: This country is run on epidemics; where you been? Price-fixing, crooked TV shows, inflated expense accounts...How many honest men you know? Why, if you separate the saints from the sinners, you're lucky to wind up with Abraham Lincoln. Now I want out of this spread what I put into it, so let's dip our bread into that gravy while it's still hot!

Homer Bannon: You're an unprincipled man, Hud.

Hud Bannon: Don't let that worry you none. You got enough for both of us.

Hud Bannon: [He smiles; She gazes at him but doesn't say anything] Well, it looks like we're losing a good cook. Maybe we should've boosted your salary. You're not letting that little ruckus we had run you off, are you?

Alma: [evenly] So far as I can get on a bus ticket.

Hud Bannon: [She shakes her head negatively; He smiles again] Are you claiming I'm the first guy who ever put his foot in your door? But I'm the first one who ever got rough, huh...? Well, I'm sorry. That wasn't my style. I don't usually get rough with my women. I generally don't have to.

Alma: You're rough on everybody.

Hud Bannon: [unruffled] So they tell me.

Alma: You want to know something funny? It would have happened eventually, without the roughhousing. You look pretty good without your shirt on, you know...The sight of that through the kitchen window made me put my dish towel down more than once.

Hud Bannon: [wry] Why didn't you speak up sooner?

Hud Bannon: I'll remember you, honey. You're the one that got away.

Homer Bannon: Don't do that, Hud; they help keep the country clean. Besides, it's against the law.

Hud Bannon: Well, I've always thought the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner. Sometimes I lean one way and sometimes I lean the other.

Hud Bannon: You know something Fantan? This world is so full of crap, a man's gonna get into it sooner or later whether he's careful or not.

Hud Bannon: It happens to everybody - Nobody gets out of life alive.

Hud Bannon: If you don't look out for yourself, the only helping hand you'll ever get is when they lower your pine box.

Hud Bannon: [Having slept with Joe's wife, Hud blames it on Lonnie - who has just come to collect Hud. Joe is ready to murder Lonnie on the spot, but Hud prevents him from doing so; to Lonnie, as they're driving away] Lay off him, he's diabetic; don't worry, I'll cool his temperature but good. Relax, Fantan; you'll be able to charge a stud fee for yourself, after that story gets around town.

Michael Sullivan: Hello John.

John Rooney: You're a smart man, Michael.

Michael Sullivan: I wanna talk.

John Rooney: Here?

Michael Sullivan: Downstairs.

John Rooney: I didn't think I'd see you again.

Michael Sullivan: Read this. Connor's been stealing from you for years. He keeps accounts open under the names of dead men. Men like the McGoverns. I stood there and helped him kill Finn to line his own pockets. I thought was I working for you, but I wasn't.

John Rooney: You think I'd give up my son?

Michael Sullivan: He was betraying you.

John Rooney: I know. Now, listen to me. I tried to avoid more bloodshed. You wouldn't accept that, so I did what was necessary. But I've always loved you like a son. And now I'm telling you, leave before it's to late.

Michael Sullivan: Think. Think. They're protecting him now, but when you're gone, they won't need him. This ends with Connor dead regardless.

John Rooney: That may be. But you are asking me to give you the key to his room so you can walk in, put a gun to his head, and pull the trigger. I can't do that.

Michael Sullivan: He murdered Annie and Peter!

John Rooney: There are only murderers in this room! Michael! Open your eyes! This is the life we chose, the life we lead. And there is only one guarantee: none of us will see heaven.

Michael Sullivan: Michael could.

John Rooney: Then do everything that you can to see that that happens. Leave. I'm begging you. It's the only way.

Michael Sullivan: And if I go?

John Rooney: Then I will mourn the son I lost.

John Rooney: This is the life we chose, the life we lead. And there is only one guarantee: none of us will see Heaven.

John Rooney: [to Michael, right before dying] I'm glad it's you.

John Rooney: [beating Connor] I curse... the fucking... day... you were born. I curse it!

John Rooney: Let's drink to Danny's honor. Let's wake him to God and hope he gets to Heaven... at least an hour before the devil finds out he's dead.

John Rooney: You would like to apologize? Try again.

John Rooney: [After losing a dice game to Michael Jr., he hands over a silver coin] A man of honor always pays his debts... and keeps his word.

John Rooney: What men do after work is what made us rich. No need to screw them at work as well.

John Rooney: Natural law. Sons are put on this earth to trouble their fathers.