Gangs of New York (2002) - Quotes

Bill: [''Points to newsletter with knife''] What's that word?

Bill: You. Whatever your name is... what is your name?

Amsterdam: Amsterdam, sir.

Bill: Amsterdam? I'm New York. Don't you never come in here empty handed again. You gotta pay for the pleasure of my company.

Boss Tweed: That's the building of our country right there, Mr. Cutting. Americans aborning.

Bill: I don't see no Americans. I see trespassers, Irish harps. Do a job for a nickel what a nigger does for a dime and a white man used to get a quarter for. What have they done? Name one thing they've contributed.

Boss Tweed: Votes.

Bill: Votes, you say? They vote how the archbishop tells them, and who tells the archbishop? Their king in the pointy hat what sits on his throne in Rome.

Boss Tweed: You may or may not know, Bill, that everyday I go down to the waterfront with hot soup for the Irish as they come ashore. Its part of building a political base.

Bill: I've noticed you there, you may have noticed me.

Boss Tweed: Indeed I have. Throwing torrents of hatred and withering abuse on every single person who steps off those boats.

Bill: [gleefully] If only I had the guns, Mr. Tweed, I'd shoot each and every one of them before they set foot on American soil.

Bill: [smirking] Is this it, Priest? The Pope's new army? A few crusty bitches and a handful of rag-tags?

Priest Vallon: Now, now, Bill. You swore this was a battle between warriors, not a bunch of Miss Nancies. So warriors is what I brought.

O'Connell Guard leader: The O'Connell Guard!

Plug Ugly leader: The Plug Uglies!

Shirt Tail leader: The Shirt Tails!

Chichester leader: The Chichesters!

Forty Thieves leader: The Forty Thieves!

Priest Vallon: [after all the other gangs are gathered] Well, what do you think of us now, Bill? Together with the other five gangs, my new army matches the number with yours. What say you, brother?

Bill: [smiling; to his fellow natives; two Natives remove Bill's overcoat and top hat; Bill and the other Natives then arm themselves as the leader gives his pre-battle speech] Uh-huh. Well, I guess we're even now. So, let's get started, then. Bené? On my challenge, by the ancient laws of combat, we are met at this chosen ground to settle for good and all who holds sway over the Five Points: us Natives, born right-wise to this fine land, or the foreign hordes defiling it.

Natives: Yeah!!!

Priest Vallon: By the ancient laws of combat, I accept the challenge of the so-called "Natives". You plague our people at every turn. But from this day out, you shall plague us no more, for let it be known that the hand that tries to strike us from this land shall be swiftly cut down!

Dead Rabbits and other gangs: YEAH!!!

Bill: Then may the Christian Lord guide my hand against your Roman popery!

Priest Vallon: [Priest unsheathes his sword] Prepare to receive the true Lord!

Walter Monk McGinn: A glorious resurrection will spring from the depths... to which these miserable creatures have fallen. In God, they will find their true home.

Walter Monk McGinn: I've got forty-four notches on my club. Do you know what they're for? They're to remind me what I owe God when I die. My father was killed in battle, too. In Ireland, in the streets, fighting those who would take as their privilege what could only be got and held by the decimation of a race. That war is a thousand years old and more. We never expected it to follow us here. It didn't. It was waiting for us when we landed. Your father tried to carve out a corner of this land for his tribe. That was him, that was his dead rabbits. I often wondered... if he had lived a bit longer, would he have wanted a bit more?

McGloin: Father! Jesus, did you know there's NIGGER IN YOUR CHURCH?!

McGloin: You're gonna end up on a stake like your man did! GYUUUUURRGH!

McGloin: There's no niggers among the Natives! Niggers and Rabbits is one thing! BUT A NIGGER IN THE CHURCH, THAT'S SOMETHING ELESE!

McGloin: What's that *NIGGER* DOING IN THIS CHURCH?!

McGloin: THIS SHOW AIN'T FOR BLACKIES!!!

McGloin: NO NIG-NOGGERY HERE!!!! NO--

McGloin: GO BACK TO AFRICA, NIGGER! GO BACK TO AFRICAAAAA!!!!!!

Boss Tweed: Remember the first rule of politics. The ballots don't make the results, the counters make the results. The counters. Keep counting.

Boss Tweed: The appearance of law must be upheld, especially while it's being broken.

William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting: You see this knife? I'm gonna teach you to speak English with this fucking knife!

William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting: [To Amsterdam] On the Seventh Day the Lord rested, but befores that he did, he took a squat over the side of England and what came out of him... was Ireland. No offense son.

William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting: We hold in our hearts the memory of our fallen brothers whose blood stains the very streets we walk today. Also on this night we pay tribute to the leader of our enemies, an honorable man, who crossed over bravely, fighting for what he believed in. To defeat my enemy, I extinguish his life, and consume him as I consume these flames. In honor of Priest Vallon.

William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting: Ears and noses will be the trophies of the day.

William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting: My father gave his life, making this country what it is. Murdered by the British with all of his men on the twenty-fifth of July, anno domini, 1814. Do you think I'm going to help you befoul his legacy, by giving this country over to them what's had no hand in the fighting for it? Why, because they come off a boat crawling with lice and begging you for soup?

William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting: [to Boss Tweed] I don't see no Americans. I see trespassers, Irish harps. Do a job for a nickel what a nigger does for a dime & what a white man used to get a quarter for.

William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting: [to Boss Tweed] Mulberry Street... and Worth... Cross and Orange... and Little Water. Each of the Five Points is a finger. When I close my hand it becomes a fist. And, anytime that I wish, I can turn it against you.

William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting: [to Amsterdam; stabs the pig; stabs the pig; stabs the pig] You get to know a lot butchering meat. We're made up of the same things - flesh and blood, tissue, organs. I love to work with pigs. The nearest thing in nature to the flesh of a man is the flesh of a pig...This is the liver. The kidneys. The heart. This is a wound—the stomach will bleed and bleed. This is a kill. This is a kill. Main artery. This is a kill.

William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting: Everything you see belongs to me, to one degree or another. The beggars and newsboys and quick thieves here in Paradise, the sailor dives and gin mills and blind tigers on the waterfront, the anglers and amusers, the she-hes and the Chinks. Everybody owes, everybody pays. Because that's how you stand up against the rising of the tide.

Amsterdam Vallon: In the end, they put candles on the bodies so's their friends, if they had any, could know them in the dark. The city did this free of charge. Shang, Jimmy Spoils, Hell-cat, McGloin, and more. Friend or foe, didn't make no difference now. It was four days and nights before the worst of the mob was finally put down. We never knew how many New Yorkers died that week before the city was finally delivered. My father told me we was all born of blood and tribulation, and so then too was our great city. But for those of us what lived and died in them furious days, it was like everything we knew was mildly swept away. And no matter what they did to build this city up again... for the rest of time... it would be like no one even knew we was ever here.

Amsterdam Vallon: Our name is called "The Dead Rabbits" to remind all of our suffering, and as a call to those who suffer still to join our ranks. However far they may have strayed from our common home across the sea. For with great numbers must come great strength in the salvation of our people.

Amsterdam Vallon: The past is a torch that lights our way. Where our fathers have shown us the path, we shall follow. Our faith is the weapon most feared by our enemies. For thereby shall we lift our people up against those who would destroy us.

Amsterdam Vallon: You know there's more of us coming off those boats everyday? Some say 15,000 Irish a week! Get all of us together and we ain't got a gang, we got an army!

Amsterdam Vallon: When you kill a king, you don't stab him in the dark. You kill him where the entire court can watch him die.

Amsterdam Vallon: It's a funny feeling being taken under the wing of a dragon. It's warmer than you'd think.