"Fuck you and your self-righteous code of the goddamned street. Did it pull you out of a thirty-year stint in five years? Did it? No, I did. Did it get you acquitted four fucking times? No, it didn't, I did. So fuck you, fuck the streets, your whole goddamn world is this big, and there's only one rule - you save your own ass."

"Hey, look, relax. You’re not dealing so he can’t have anything on you. That’s not possible. This is the way this guy is. He’s on a goddamn fishing exhibition."

"[last words of the movie] Sorry, boys, all the stitches in the world can’t sew me together again... Lay down. Lay down. Gonna stretch me out in Fernandez Funeral Home on 109th street... Always knew I’d make a stop there, but a lot later than a whole gang of people thought. Last of the Mo-Rican’s. Well, maybe not the last. Gail’s gonna be a good mom. New, improved Carlito Brigante. Hope she uses the money to get out. No room in this city for big hearts like hers... Sorry, baby, I tried the best I could. Honest. Can’t come with me on this trip, though... Gettin’ the shakes now. Last call for drinks. Bar’s closin’ down. Sun’s out. Where we goin’ for breakfast? Don’t wanna go far... Rough night. Tired, baby... Tired..."

"The dream don't come no closer by itself. We gotta run after it now."

"When you can’t see the angles no more, you’re in trouble, baby. You’re in trouble."

"You ain’t a lawyer no more, Dave. You’re a gangster now. You’re on the other side. Whole new ball game. You can’t learn about it at school, and you can’t have a late start."

"Dave is my friend, Gail. I owe him. That’s who I am, That’s what I am, right or wrong. I can’t change that!"

"Guys went down, yeah, but it ain’t like, you know, you just decide one day and that’s it. No. You just do what you gotta do to survive. Somehow, you know, you just end up where you are."

"Dumb move, man. Dumb move. But it’s like them old reflexes comin’ back. I know what’s supposed to happen now. Benny’s gotta go down. And if I don’t do it, they’re gonna say: “Carlito, he’s flaky, man. Slacked-out. A used-to-be bad guy. Joint got to Carlito.” The street is watchin’. She is watchin’ all the time."

"Okay, Benny Blanco from the Bronx. The chick Steffie belongs to the club. Now if I ever, I mean if I ever, see you here again you die, just like that."

"This guy, this counsellor in Lewisburg, Mr Seawald, once said to me: “Charlie, you run out of steam. You can’t sprint all the way. You gotta stop sometime. You can’t buck it forever. It catches up to you. It gets you. You don’t get reformed, you just run out of wind.”"

"Times have changed. What happened to the miniskirts? Where’s all that marijuana? Now everything is platforms, cocaine, and dances I don’t dance. What a man gotta come to when he loses five years."

"Oh, Jesus. Jesus Christ, look at you. You said they were friends, Guajiro. But there ain’t no friends in this shit business."

"I’M RELOADED! Come on in here, motherfuckers! Come on, I’m waitin’ for ya! You ain’t comin’ in? I’m comin’ out! You’re up against it now, motherfuckers! I’m gonna blow your fuckin’ brains out! You think you’re big time? You’re gonna fuckin’ die big time! You ready? Here comes the pain!"

"Here’s me back on the street. Third Sunday in August. Old Timer’s Day in the barrio. Nothin’ left. Like them old cowboy movies, only instead of tumbleweed and cow dung we got stripped car wrecks and dog shit."

"No favor. I owe you. Favor gonna kill you faster than a bullet."

"Your Honor with all due respect, past and present, and without further to-do. Let me ensure this court that I am through walkin’ on the wild side. That’s all I’ve been tryin’ to tell you. I have been sick with the social ills known in the ghetto. But my time in the sterling correction facilities of Green Haven and Sing Sing have not been in vain. I’ve been cured! Born again, like the Watergaters. I know you heard this rap before. Your Honor, I mean it. This is the truth. I changed. I changed, and it didn’t take no thirty years like Your Honor thought, but only five. That’s right, sir, five years. And look at me. Completely rehabilitated, reinvigorated, reassimilated and finally going to be relocated, and I want to thank a lot of people for that. I look over there and I see that man there, Mr Norwalk. I want to thank you, sir, for making the tapes in an illegal fashion. I would like to thank the Court Of Appeals, for reversing you, Your Honour. And I want to thank Almighty God without whom no case gets tossed."