GoodFellas Quotes

Henry Hill If you're part of a crew, nobody ever tells you that they're going to kill you. It doesn't happen that way. There weren't any arguments or curses like in the movies. So your murderers come with smiles. They come as your friends, the people who have cared for you all of your life, and they always seem to come at a time when you're at your weakest and most in need of their help.

Henry Hill It was revenge for Billy Batts, and a lot of other things. And there was nothing that we could do about it. Batts was a made man and Tommy wasn't. And we had to sit still and take it. It was among the Italians. It was real greaseball shit. They even shot Tommy in the face so his mother couldn't give him an open coffin at the funeral.

Henry You're a pistol! You're really funny. You're really funny!

Tommy What do you mean I'm funny?

Henry It's funny, you know. It's a good story, it's funny, you're a funny guy!

Tommy [dangerously] What do you mean? You mean the way I talk? What?

Henry It's just, you know, you're just funny. It's funny, the way you tell the story and everything.

Tommy Funny how? I mean, what's funny about it?

Anthony Tommy, no, you got it all wrong —

Tommy Oh, oh, Anthony. He's a big boy, he knows what he said. [to Henry] What did ya say? Funny how?

Anthony You're right.

Henry Just —

Tommy What?

Henry Just, ya know, you're funny.

Tommy Hey Henry, Henry, hurry up, will ya? My mother's gonna make some fresh peppers and sausages for us.

Jimmy Oh hey, Henry, Henry, here's an arm!

Henry Very funny, guys.

Jimmy Here's a leg.

Tommy Here's a wing! Whaddya like, the leg or the wing, Henry? Or do you still go for the ol hearts and lungs?

Henry Oh, that's so bad.

Tommy Hey, Spider, that bandage on your foot is bigger than your fucking head. Next thing you know he's gonna have one of these fucking walkers. But you can still dance. Give us a couple of fucking steps, Spider. You fucking bullshitter, you. Tell the truth. You're looking for sympathy, is that it, sweetie?

Spider Why don't you go fuck yourself, Tommy?

Jimmy I didn't hear right. I can't believe what I heard. This is for you. Attaboy! I got respect for this kid, he's got a lot of fucking balls. Good for you! Don't take no shit off nobody! A guy shoots him in the foot, he tells him to go fuck himself. Tommy, you gonna let him get away with that? You gonna let this fucking punk get away with that? What's the matter with you? What's the world coming to?!

Tommy That's what the fucking world's coming to, how do ya like that? How's that, all right?

Jimmy What's the matter with you?! What is the fucking matter with you?! What, are you stupid or what?! I was kidding with you. You a fucking sick maniac?

Tommy I don't know if you're kidding! What do you mean, you're kidding? You breaking my fucking balls?!

Jimmy I'm fucking kidding with you, you fucking shoot the guy?!

Henry He's dead.

Tommy I'm a good shot, what do you want from me?

Anthony How could you miss at this distance?

Tommy You got a problem with what I did, Anthony? Fucking rat, anyway. His whole family's all rats, he'd have grown up to be a rat.

Jimmy Stupid bastard, I can't fucking believe you. Now, you're gonna dig the fucking thing now. You're gonna dig the hole. You gonna do it. I got no fucking lime, you gonna do it.

Tommy Who the fuck cares? I'll dig the fucking hole, I don't give a fuck. What is it, the first hole I ever dug? Not the first time I dug a hole, I'll dig the fucking hole. Where are the shovels?

Tommy's Mother Why don't you get yourself a nice girl?

Tommy I get a nice one almost every night, Ma.

Tommy's Mother Yeah, but get yourself a girl so you could settle down.

Tommy I settle down almost every night but then, in the morning, I'm free.

Jimmy Congratulations, here's your graduation present

Henry For what? I got pinched.

Jimmy Hey, everybody gets pinched, but you did it right. You told em nothing and they got nothing.

Henry I thought you'd be mad.

Jimmy I'm not mad, I'm proud of ya. You took your first pinch like a man, and you learned the two most important things in life. You listenin'? Never rat on your friends, and ALWAYS keep your mouth shut.

Paulie Hey, you broke yer cherry!

Henry Hill Hundreds of guys depended on Paulie and he got a piece of everything they made. And it was tribute, just like in the old country, except they were doing it here in America. And all they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. And that's what it's all about. That's what the FBI could never understand. That what Paulie and the organization does is offer protection for people who can't go to the cops. That's it. That's all. They're like the police department for wiseguys.

Henry Hill For a second, I thought I was dead, but when I heard all the noise I knew they were cops. Only cops talk that way. If they had been wiseguys, I wouldn't have heard a thing. I would've been dead.

Henry Hill It made him sick to have to turn money over to the guys who stole it. He'd rather whack em. Anyway, what did I care? I wasn't asking for anything and besides, Jimmy was making nice money with me through my Pittsburgh connections. But still, months after the robbery they were finding bodies all over. When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff it took them two days to thaw him out for the autopsy.

Henry As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.

Henry Hill My father was always pissed off. He was pissed that he made such lousy money, he was pissed that my kid brother Michael was in a wheelchair, he was pissed that there were seven of us living in such a tiny house. After awhile he was mostly pissed because I hung around the cab stand. He knew what went on at that cab stand, and every once in a while I'd have to take a beating. But by then I didn't care. The way I saw it everybody takes a beating sometime.

Karen Hill It was like he had two families. The first time I was introduced to all of them at once, it was crazy. Paulie and his brothers had lots of sons and nephews and almost all of them were named Peter or Paul. It was unbelievable. There must have been two dozen Peter’s and Paul’s at the wedding. Plus they were all married to girls named Marie. And they named all their daughter’s Marie. By the time I finished meeting everybody, I thought I was drunk!

Karen Hill But still I couldn't hurt him. How could I hurt him? I couldn't even bring myself to leave him. The truth was that no matter how bad I felt I was still very attracted to him. Why should I give him to someone else? Why should she win?

Tommy Just don't go bustin my balls, Billy, okay?

Billy Hey, Tommy, if I was gonna break your balls, I'd tell you to go home and get your shine box. Now this kid, this kid was great. They, they used to call him Spitshine Tommy. I swear to God! Now he'd make your shoes look like fuckin mirrors. Scuse my language. He was terrific, he was the best. He made a lot of money, too. Salud, Tommy!

Tommy No more shines, Billy.

Billy What?

Tommy I said no more shines. Maybe you didn't hear about it, you've been away a long time; they didn't go up there and tell you. I don't shine shoes anymore.

Billy Relax, will ya? You flipped right out, what's got into you? I'm breakin your balls a little bit, that's all. I'm only kiddin with ya.

Tommy Sometimes you don't sound like you're kidding, you know? There's a lotta people around...

Billy Tommy, I'm only kiddin with you. We're having a party and I just came home, and I haven't seen you in a long time, and I'm breakin your balls, and right away you're getting fuckin fresh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you.

Tommy I'm sorry too. It's okay. No problem.

Billy Okay, salud. Now go home and get ya fuckin shinebox!

Tommy MOTHERFUCKIN MUTT! YOU, YOU FUCKIN PIECE OF SHIT...!

Billy Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, come on! Come on! Let him go!

Tommy Henry, he bought his fuckin button! That fake old tough guy! You bought your fuckin button! Keep that motherfucker here, keep him here!

Karen Hill We always did everything together and we always were in the same crowd. Anniversaries, christenings. We only went to each other's houses. The women played cards, and when the kids were born, Mickey and Jimmy were always the first at the hospital. And when we went to the Islands or Vegas to vacation, we always went together. No outsiders, ever. It got to be normal. It got to where I was even proud that I had the kind of husband who was willing to go out and risk his neck just to get us the little extras.

Henry Hill You know, we always called each other goodfellas. Like you said to, uh, somebody, "You're gonna like this guy. He's all right. He's a good fella. He's one of us." You understand? We were goodfellas. Wiseguys. But Jimmy and I could never be made because we had Irish blood. It didn't even matter that my mother was Sicilian. To become a member of a crew you've got to be one hundred per cent Italian so they can trace all your relatives back to the old country. See, it's the highest honor they can give you. It means you belong to a family and crew. It means that nobody can fuck around with you. It also means you could fuck around with anybody just as long as they aren't also a member. It's like a license to steal. It's a license to do anything. As far as Jimmy was concerned with Tommy being made, it was like we were all being made. We would now have one of our own as a member.

Henry Hill Now the guy's got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy's gotta come up with Paulie's money every week, no matter what. Business bad? "Fuck you, pay me." Oh, you had a fire? "Fuck you, pay me." Place got hit by lightning, huh? "Fuck you, pay me." Also, Paulie could do anything. Especially run up bills on the joint's credit. And why not? Nobody's gonna pay for it anyway. And as soon as the deliveries are made in the front door, you move the stuff out the back and sell it at a discount. You take a two hundred dollar case of booze and you sell it for a hundred. It doesn't matter. It's all profit. And then finally, when there's nothing left, when you can't borrow another buck from the bank or buy another case of booze, you bust the joint out. You light a match.

Henry Hill For most of the guys, killings got to be accepted. Murder was the only way that everybody stayed in line. You got out of line, you got whacked. Everybody knew the rules. But sometimes, even if people didn't get out of line, they got whacked. I mean, hits just became a habit for some of the guys. Guys would get into arguments over nothing and before you knew it, one of them was dead. And they were shooting each other all the time. Shooting people was a normal thing. It was no big deal. We had a serious problem with Billy Batts. This was really a touchy thing. Tommy'd killed a made guy. Batts was part of the Gambino crew and was considered untouchable. Before you could touch a made guy, you had to have a good reason. You had to have a sitdown, and you better get an okay, or you'd be the one who got whacked.

Henry [narrating] Jimmy was the kind of guy that rooted for bad guys in the movies.

Karen Hill One night, ] sent us champagne. There was nothing like it. I didn't think there was anything strange in any of this. You know, a twenty-one-year-old kid with such connections. He was an exciting guy. He was really nice. He introduced me to everybody. Everybody wanted to be nice to him. And he knew how to handle it.

Henry Hill Paulie might've moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didn't have to move for anybody.

Henry Hill As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. To me, being a gangster was better than being President of the United States. Even before I first wandered into the cabstand for an after-school job, I knew I wanted to be a part of them. It was there that I knew that I belonged. To me, it meant being somebody in a neighborhood that was full of nobodies. They weren't like anybody else. I mean, they did whatever they wanted. They double-parked in front of a hydrant and nobody ever gave them a ticket. In the summer when they played cards all night, nobody ever called the cops.

Henry Hill Saturday night was for wives, but Friday night at the Copa was always for the girlfriends.

Karen Well we weren't married to 9 to 5 guys but the first time I realized how different was when Mickey had a hostess party. They had bad skin and wore too much makeup I mean, they didn't look very good. They looked beat up. And the stuff they wore was thrown together and cheap. A lot of pant suits and double-knits. And they talked about how rotten their kids were and about beating them with broom handles and leather belts, that the kids still didn't pay any attention. When Henry picked me up I was dizzy. I don't know, I don't know if i could live like that. God forbid, what would happen if you had to go to prison?

Henry Karen!

Karen Vicki said that Jeannie's husband-

Henry You know why Jeannie's husband went to the can? Because of Jeannie! Because he wanted to get away from her that's why! Let me tell you something; nobody goes to jail unless they want to. Unless they make themselves get caught. They don't have things organized. I know what I'm doing, I got things organized with these guys. You know who goes to jail? Nigger stick-up men, that's who. You know why they get caught? Because they fall asleep in the get-away car, Karen. Come on, don't worry so much sweetie. Come here.

Karen We were all so very close. I mean, there were never any outsiders around. Absolutely never. And being together all the time made everything seem all the more normal.

Henry Hill One day some of the kids from the neighborhood carried my mother's groceries all the way home. You know why? It was outta respect.

Karen Hill I know there are women, like my best friends, who would have gotten out of there the minute their boyfriend gave them a gun to hide. But I didn't. I gotta admit the truth. It turned me on.

Henry You're a pistol! You're really funny. You're really funny!

Tommy What do you mean I'm funny?

Henry It's funny, you know. It's a good story, it's funny, you're a funny guy!

Tommy What do you mean? You mean the way I talk? What?

Henry It's just, you know, you're just funny. It's funny, the way you tell the story and everything.

Tommy Funny how? I mean, what's funny about it?

Anthony Tommy, no, you got it all wrong —

Tommy Oh, oh, Anthony. He's a big boy, he knows what he said. What did ya say? Funny how?

Anthony You're right.

Henry Just —

Tommy What?

Henry Just, ya know, you're funny.

Tommy You mean, let me understand this, cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little fucked up maybe, but I'm funny how? I mean funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to fuckin amuse you? What do you mean funny? Funny how? How am I funny?

Henry Just... you know, how you tell the story — what?

Tommy No, no, I don't know. You said it! How do I know? You said I'm funny. How the fuck am I funny? What the fuck is so funny about me?! Tell me, tell me what's funny!

Henry Get the fuck out of here, Tommy!

Tommy Ya motherfucker! I almost had him, I almost had him! You stuttering prick, you! Frankie, was he shaking? I wonder about you sometimes, Henry. You may fold under questioning!

Henry Hill It was easy for all of us to disappear. My house and cars were either registered in the name of my wife or my mother-in-law. My driver's license and social security number were phony. I never voted; never paid taxes. My birth certificate, arrest sheet, and my service record from the Army were all that existed to prove to the government I was ever alive.

Henry Hill See, the hardest thing for me was leaving the life. I still love the life. And we were treated like movie stars with muscle. We had it all, just for the asking. Our wives, mothers, kids, everybody rode along. I had paper bags filled with jewelry stashed in the kitchen. I had a sugar bowl full of coke next to the bed. Anything I wanted was a phone call away. Free cars. The keys to a dozen hideout flats all over the city. I'd bet twenty, thirty grand over a weekend and then I'd either blow the winnings in a week or go to the sharks to pay back the bookies. Didn't matter. It didn't mean anything. When I was broke I would go out and rob some more. We ran everything. We paid off cops. We paid off lawyers. We paid off judges. Everybody had their hands out. Everything was for the taking. And now it's all over. And that's the hardest part. Today, everything is different. There's no action. I have to wait around like everyone else. Can't even get decent food. Right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.

Henry Hill See, you know when you think of prison, you get pictures in your mind of all those old movies with rows and rows of guys behind bars...But it wasn't like that for wiseguys. It really wasn't that bad. Excepting that I missed Jimmy. He was doing his time in Atlanta...I mean, everybody else in the joint was doing real time, all mixed together, living like pigs. But we lived alone. And we owned the joint.

Karen Hill Well, we weren't married to nine-to-five guys, but the first time I realized how different was when Mickey had a hostess party. They had bad skin and wore too much make-up. I mean, they didn't look very good. They looked beat-up. And the stuff they wore was thrown together and cheap. A lot of pant suits and double knits. And they talked about how rotten their kids were and about beating them with broom handles and leather belts. But that the kids still didn't pay any attention...After a while, it got to be all normal. None of it seemed like crimes. It was more like Henry was enterprising and that he and the guys were making a few bucks hustling, while the other guys were sitting on their asses waiting for hand-outs. Our husbands weren't brain surgeons. They were blue-collar guys. The only way they could make extra money, real extra money, was to go out and cut a few corners...We were all so very close. I mean, there were never any outsiders around. Absolutely never. And being together all the time made everything seem all the more normal.

Henry Hill They must really feed each other to the lions down there because the guy gave the money right up and we got to spend the rest of the weekend at the track. Then I couldn’t believe what happened, when we got home, we were all over the newspaper. At first I didn’t even know why we got picked up but then I found out that the guy we roughed up turned out to have a sister working as a typist for the FBI. I couldn’t believe it. Of all the fucking people. She gave up everybody; Jimmy, me, even her brother. Took the jury six hours to bring us in guilty. The judge gave Jimmy and me ten years like he was giving away candy.

Paulie Karen came to the house. She's very upset. This is no good; you gotta straighten this out.

Henry Hill For us to live any other way was nuts. Uh, to us, those goody-good people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks and took the subway to work every day and worried about their bills were dead. I mean they were suckers. They had no balls. If we wanted something, we just took it. If anyone complained twice they got hit so bad, believe me, they never complained again.

Henry Paulie may have moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didn't have to move for anybody.