"I'm afraid you don't know how the aviation business works, Senator. See, wining and dining Air Force dignitaries is common in our business. It's because we all want the big contracts. All the major aircraft companies do it. I don't know whether it's a good system, I just know it is not illegal. You, Senator, you are the lawmaker. If you pass a law that states no one can entertain Air Force officers, well, hell! I'd be happy to abide by it!"

"I sleep...in this room...in the dark. I have a place I can sleep. I have a chair. That's just beautiful. Oh, yeah. I like the desert. It's hot there in the desert, but it's clean. It's clean. I need to sleep. I should drink something first. I should have some... some milk. Wait a minute... what if that milk is sour? That milk is bad I shouldn't pick up the bottle with my right hand. And I shouldn't take the top off with my left...put it in my pocket. My left pocket."

"Tell Juan Trippe something for me. Tell him thanks for the flowers. And he can kiss... both sides... of my ass."

"Orange juice has... nutritional value. There's some... flies... outside the window. Little Howard likes... citrus. Don't he just."

"Sh- Show me all the blueprints, Odie. Show me all the blueprints... (Lower) Show me all the blueprints. I'm serious now- show me all the blueprints... ... ... Show me all the bl- Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. (clears throat) I wanna get it done right so show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints show me all the blueprints."

"Quarantine. Q-u-a-r-a-n-t-i-n-e. Quarantine."

"(In front of the Motion Picture Censorship Board) Good to see you, Mr. Breen. Gentlemen, it's good to see you- I haven't seen you all since that issue with all the violence in Scarface. The problem here seems to revolve around Ms. Russell's mammaries, is that correct? Mr. Breen feels that they are too prominant, yes? More prominant than other mammaries have been up on the screen? Well... we hope to dispel that notion. Jean Harlow. Ann Sheridan. Irene Dunne. Claudette Colbert, Rita Hayworth, Bettie Grable... and the lovely Ms. Jane Russell. Now all of these photos- save for Ms. Russell's- have been enlarged from pictures that received Mr. Breen's seal of approval... and as you can see they all contain mammaries. At this point I'd like to introduce my assisstant, Dr. Ludlow Branson. Dr. Branson is a mathematician of some note...yes. And he will prove that, in fact, Ms. Russell's mammaries are no more prominant than any of these other fine ladies. Doctor? Doctor... you forgot your calipers."

"I'm Howard Hughes, the aviator."

"She'll go faster."

"Tell Jimmy I want ten chocolate chip cookies, medium chips, none too close to the outside."

"Boy, you are just hittin' on all six cylinders aren't'cha? My God. Would you do me a favor and just...? Would you just smile for me one time, just once? Yeah, yeah, see you got a short upper lip...makes for a much nicer smile. See I wonder what gives a beautiful woman like you pleasure. I mean say you're just standing there, right and I- I just touch you. Just like this... see my fingertips. I mean, do you like that? Do you? See, I wanna learn what pleases you. I wanna learn everything about you. Would you let me do that? Would you give me that job?"

"That reminds me of two friends of mines. One was married, one was single. The married guy tells the single guy: 'Oh, what's the matter with you? What's the matter with you? Look at me. And look at you. And look at me. And look at you. Let me get on with it. When I come home at night, my wife's at the door with a tall drink in her hand. And she gives me a nice hot bath. Then she gives me a nice rub-down. Then she makes passionate love to me. Then she makes me a nice dinner. What more could you ask for? You oughta try that.' The other friend says: 'Hey, that sounds great. When does your wife get home?'"

"That's the kind of girl that you want to bring home to your father - especially if he's a degenerate. Ah, seriously folks, it's a thrill to be standing here before you wonderful people tonight. Well, in fact, it's a thrill to be standing."

"It's over for me. Boxing's over for me. I'm through. I'm tired of worryin' about weight all the time. That's all I used to think about was weight, weight, weight. After a while, you know, you realize other things in life. I mean, I'm very grateful. Boxing's been good to me: I've got a nice house, I've got three great kids, I've got a wonderful, beautiful wife - what more could I ask for?"

"[After being beaten half to death by Sugar Ray Robinson, Jake is still standing.] Hey, Ray, I never went down, man! You never got me down, Ray! You hear me, you never got me down."

"I take the dive. What more do they want?...They want me to go down too? Well, I ain't goin' down, no, not for nobody."

"I'm gonna win. There's no way I'm goin' down. I don't go down for nobody."

"Who's an animal? Your mother's an animal, ya son of a bitch."

"[to Vickie] You ever think of anyone else when we're in bed?...You know, like when we made love?"

"[to Vickie] You know how beautiful you are? Anybody ever tell you how beautiful? Yeah, tell you all the time."

"Friends. They're in a huddle. Big business meeting. By the pool, they sit around and talk. Big deals. They make sure she can hear. Big Man. Get the fuck outta here. Big shot. Get 'em all in a back room, smack 'em around, no more big shot, without his gun. They're tough guys. They're all tough guys....Big Shot."

"I remember those cheers They still ring in my ears And for years they'll remain in my thoughts. Cuz one night I took off my robe And what'd I do? I forgot to wear shorts. I recall every fall, every hook, every jab; The worst way a guy could get rid of his flab. As you know, my life wasn't drab... Though I'd rather hear you cheer, When I delve into Shakespeare. "A Horse, a Horse, my Kingdom for a Horse," I haven't had a winner in six months. I know I'm no Olivier But if he fought Sugar Ray, He would say That the thing ain't the ring, It's the play. So gimme a stage Where this bull here can rage. And though I can fight, I'd much rather recite That's entertainment! That's entertainment.."

"Frank Vincent - Salvy Batts"

"Nicholas Colasanto — Tommy Como"

"Lori Anne Flax — Irma"

"Cathy Moriarty - Vickie Thailer"

"Joe Pesci — Joey LaMotta"

"Robert De Niro — Jake LaMotta"

"Vickie: [to Jake] I fucked all of them! What do you want me to say?...I fucked all of them - Tommy, Salvy, your brother! All of them! I sucked your brother's cock, what do you want me to say?...I sucked his cock and everybody else on the fucking street, too. What do you want? You're nothin' but a fat pig, selfish fool! [Jake viciously slaps her again] His fucking cock is bigger than yours, too!"

"Tommy Como: [After Janiro fight] He ain't pretty no more."

"Irma: I'm not gonna be here when you get back, you fuckin' bunch of guineas, you're always hangin' out together. Why don't you fuckin' stop? You're not goin' on business. You're gonna suck each other off, right? Suck 'em, suck 'em baby. You fuckin' queer. Faggot."

"He gave you the old good news/bad news routine. The good news is - you're gonna get the shot at the title. And the bad news is - they want ya to do the old flip-flop for 'em."

"[on the phone, not realizing it's his brother Jake who's called him] Salvy, this ain't funny anymore. Is it you? I know somebody's there. I can hear you breathin'. You listenin'? Your mother sucks fuckin' big fuckin' elephant dicks. You got that?"

"What are ya thinkin' about? Ya keep lookin'. Where the fuck you going? You're dead! You're married! You're a married man, it's all over. Leave the young girls for me."

"[Last lines, to himself] Go get 'em, champ. I'm da boss, I'm da boss, I'm da boss, I'm da boss, I'm da boss... I'm da boss, I'm da boss, I'm da boss, I'm da boss, I'm da boss, I'm da boss."

"Guy comes home, finds his wife in bed with another guy. The wife says, 'Look who's here. Big mouth. Now the whole neighborhood'll know.'"

"Why? Why? Why?...Why'd you do it? Why? You're so stupid...I'm not an animal. Why do you treat me like this? I'm not so bad."

"Shooting people was 'No big deal'."

"Murderers come with smiles."

""As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster."—Henry Hill, Brooklyn, N.Y. 1955."

"Three Decades of Life in the Mafia."

"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?"

"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."

"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."

"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!"

"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."

"One night, Bobby Vinton 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."

"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."

"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."

"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."