"The money came raining down, and for the first time, the banker went from the country club to the strip club. Pretty soon, stocks and savings were almost inconsequential. They were doing $50, $100, $200 billion in mortgage bonds and dozens of other securities a year, and America barely noticed as its number one industry became boring old banking. And then, one day, almost 30 years later, in 2008, it all came crashing down. In the end, Lewis Ranieri's mortgage-backed security mutated into a monstrosity that collapsed the whole world economy, and none of the experts or leaders or talking heads had a clue it was coming. I'm guessing most of you still don't really know what happened. Yeah, you got a soundbite you repeat so you don't sound dumb but come on. But there were some who saw it coming. While the whole world was having a big old party, a few outsiders and weirdos saw what no one else could. Not me. I'm not a weirdo, I'm pretty fucking cool, but we'll meet again later. These outsiders saw the giant lie at the heart of the economy, and they saw it by doing something the rest of the suckers never thought to do: They looked."

"I'm JACKED! I'M JACKED TO THE TITS!"

"Let me put it this way: I'm standing in front of a burning house, and I'm offering you fire insurance on it."

"Is this America's angriest hedge fund?"

"Christian Bale - Dr. Michael Burry"

"I'm trying to sell $200 million worth of securities...in a pub...it smells like sheep."

"If you don't want the offer, you can just hang up...that's what I thought."

"The largest bank in France just froze its money-market accounts. This thing's starting to hit across Europe. Greece and Iceland are finished, Spain's teetering."

"Just...don't fucking dance."

"The NSA has a $52-billion budget and the ability to monitor tens of millions of calls a second. You think they're not using it?"

"Do you realize what you just did? You just bet against the American economy."

"You guys said you wanted to be rich, now you're rich."

"If we're right, people lose homes. People lose jobs, people lose retirement savings, people lose pensions. You know what I hate about fucking banking? It reduces people to numbers. Here's a number - every 1% unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die, did you know that?"

"Tracy Letts - Lawrence Fields"

"[Final letter to his investors] I met my wife through Match.com. My profile said, "I am a medical student with only one eye, an awkward social manner, and $145,000 in student loans." She wrote back, "You're just what I've been looking for." She meant "honest", so let me be honest. Making money is not like what I thought it would be. This business kills the part of life that is essential, the part that has nothing to do with business. For the past two years, my insides have felt like they've been eating themselves. All the people that I respected won't talk to me anymore, except through lawyers. People want an authority to tell them how to value things, but they choose this authority not based on facts or results. They choose it because it seems authoritative and familiar. And I am not, nor ever have been, "familiar." So...so I have come to the sullen realization that I must close down the fund. Sincerely, Michael J. Burry, M.D."

"[Opening monologue] In the late '70s, banking wasn't a job you went into to make large sums of money. It was a fucking snooze, filled with losers. Like selling insurance or accounting. And if banking was boring, then the bond department at the bank was straight up comatose. We all know about bonds. You give 'em to your snot-nosed kid when he turns 15; maybe, when he's 30, he makes a hundred bucks. Boring. That is until Lewis Ranieri came on the scene at Salomon Brothers. You might not know who he is, but he changed your life more than Michael Jordan, the iPod, and YouTube put together. You see, Lewis didn't know it yet, but he had already changed banking forever with one simple idea."

"Steve Carell - Mark Baum"

"Now their foot's on fire, they think their steak is done, and you're surprised?"

"Holy shit. All this time I've been trying to figure out who it is I'm betting against, and it's Morgan-Stanley. Which is me."

"We're going to wait and we're going to wait and we're going to wait until they feel the pain until they start to bleed."

"They knew. They knew the taxpayers would bail them out. They weren't being stupid; they just didn't care."

"I'm going to try to find moral redemption at the roulette table."

"[Regarding Vennett] I can't hate him. He's so transparent in his self-interest, that I kind of respect him. Would I buy a car from him? No."

"It's two simple questions: Is there a bubble? And if there is, how exposed are the banks?"

"I have a feeling in a few years people are going to be doing what they always do when the economy tanks. They will be blaming immigrants and poor people."

"We live in an era of fraud in America. Not just in banking, but in government, education, religion, food, even baseball... What bothers me isn't that fraud is not nice. Or that fraud is mean. For fifteen thousand years, fraud and short-sighted thinking have never, ever worked. Not once. Eventually, you get caught, things go south. When the hell did we forget all that? I thought we were better than this, I really did."

"So, mortgage bonds are dog shit, and CDO's are dog shit wrapped in cat shit?"

"[Last line of the movie] Okay...sell it all."

"The banks have given us 25% interest rates on credit cards. They have screwed us on student loans that we can never get out from under. Then this guy walks into my office and says those same banks got greedy, they lost track of the market, and I can profit off of their stupidity? Fuck yeah, I want him to be right!"

"That's a nice haircut, did you do it yourself?"

"I am happy when I'm unhappy."

"Lawrence, I don't know how to be sarcastic."

"And I'm getting madder and madder, and I ask this guy how he sleeps at night knowing he's ripping off working people and he just leaves. He doesn't say a word. He just walks away from the lunch. So, am I the fucked up one, or is he?"

"I may have been early, but I'm not wrong."

"[On the phone] Let me ask you this: What company treats its customers that shittily and succeeds?...Fine, okay, Goldman."

"Always remember the customer is an individual. Just like you. Each person you speak to has had a day. Some of the days have been good, some bad, but they've all had one. Each person you speak to has had a childhood. Each has a body. Each body has aches. What is it to be human? What is it to ache? What is it to be alive? [scoffs.] I don't know. What is it to ache? I don't know. What is it to be alive? I don't know... Uh, yes. "How do I talk to a customer?" How do I talk to a customer? These are the important questions for a customer service representative. What do I say? Do I smile while I'm on the phone? Well, they can tell, if you're smiling, even if they can't see you. Did you know that? Try it as an experiment on the phone with a friend. Try it. Go ahead. Watch. [turns around.] I'm lost. [chuckles and turns back around.] See I was smiling when I said that? I've lost my love. She's an unmoored ship and she's drifting off to sea. I have no one to talk to. I have no one to talk to. I have no one to talk to. I'm sorry. I don't mean to burden you with that, I just don't know what else to do because I have no one to talk to... Be friendly to the customer. Think of the customer as a friend... [sighs.]"

"I think there's something very very wrong with me..."

"David Thewlis - Michael Stone"

"Tom Noonan - Everyone Else"

"Jennifer Jason Leigh - Lisa Hesselman"

"Sometimes there's no lesson. That's a lesson in itself."

"What is to be human? What is it to ache? What is it to be.. alive? Each person you speak to has had a day. Some of the days have been good, some bad. Each person you speak to has had a childhood. Each has a body. Each body has aches. Look for what is special about each individual. Focus on that. Remember there is someone out there for everyone. Our time is limited, we forget that. Death comes, that’s it. Soon it’s as if we never existed. So, remember to smile."

"Giulia Carmignani - Mariposa"

"Silvio Muccino -fiancee of Mariposa"

"Vittorio Amandola - Mimmo"

"Carmen Consoli - lover of Alberto"