"Commissioner Hardy: [referring to Doc] He loses you five blocks from the depot and one of the most dangerous criminals alive is now at large in this city."

"Cobby: How can things go so wrong? How is it possible? One man killed, two others plugged. I'm out thirty grand. We got a load of rocks we can't even peddle...I must be awful stupid. Here I am with a good business, money rolling in, I-I gotta get mixed up in a thing like this. I ought to have my head examined."

"Cobby: Here's to the drink habit. It's the only one I got that don't get me into trouble."

"Dr. Swanson: He hasn't got enough blood left in him to keep a chicken alive."

"Let me put it this way. It's not anything strange that there are corrupt officers in police departments. The dirt they're trying to clean up is bound to rub off on some of 'em, but not all of 'em. Maybe one out of a 100. The other 99 are honest men trying to do an honest job. Listen... [One by one, he flipped the switch on police radios behind him that broadcast crime reports] I know you're police reporters and you hear this all day long, but I want you to listen with your conscience, not just your ears. We send police assistance to every one of those calls 'cause they're not just code numbers on a radio beam, they're cries for help. People are being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on 24 hours a day, every day in the year. And that's not exceptional, that's usual. It's the same in every city of the modern world. But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had [he flipped off all four radios] - just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over. Think about it. Well gentlemen, three men are in jail, three men dead, one by his own hand. One man's a fugitive - and we have reason to believe seriously wounded. That's six out of seven, not bad. And we'll get the last one too. In some ways, he's the most dangerous of them all. A hardened killer. A hooligan. A man without human feeling or human mercy."

"Are you a man, or what? Trying to gyp and double-cross with no guts for it. What's inside of you? What's keeping you alive?"

"Why don't you quit cryin' and get me some bourbon?"

"I haven't carried a gun since my twenties. You carry a gun, you shoot a policeman. Bad rap, hard to beat. You don't carry a gun, you give up when they hold one on you."

"Home is where the money is."

"Put in hours and hours of planning. Figure everything down to the last detail. Then what? Burglar alarms start going off all over the place for no sensible reason. A gun fires of its own accord and a man is shot. And a broken down old cop, no good for anything but chasing kids, has to trip over us. Blind accident. What can you do against blind accidents? One thing I ought to have figured and didn't was Emmerich. I know why I didn't. I'm not kidding myself. It was the extra dough he promised. I got hungry. Greed made me blind."

"They'll listen to reason. This is a very bad jolt for them. And it's possible they'll be willing to buy the jewels back, no questions asked, for as high as twenty-five percent of what they're worth."

"They'll be paid off like house painters - they'll be told nothing about the size of the take. Sometimes, men get greedy."

"Everything is here, from the observed routine of the personnel to the alarm system, the types of locks on the doors, the aging condition of the main safe, and so forth and so forth. Take my word for it, Mr. Emmerich, this is a ripe plum ready to fall...Perhaps you know my reputation. I've engineered some very big things."

"One way or another, we all work for our vice."

"Experience has taught me never to trust a policeman. Just when you think one's all right, he turns legit."

"Angela Phinlay: Imagine me on this beach here in my green bathing suit. Yipe! I almost bought a white one the other day, but it wasn't quite extreme enough. I mean, don't get me wrong, if I really went in for the extreme extreme, I would have bought a French one. Run for your life, girls, the fleet's in. Oh, Uncle Lon, am I excited? Yipe! referring to the magazine's pictures of a tropical resort Look, Uncle Lon, isn't it romantic? Real palms and ocean and everything."

"Louis Ciavelli: If you want fresh air, don't look for it in this town."

"Louis Ciavelli: I never saw a hooligan I did like. They're like left-handed pitchers, they all have a screw loose somewhere."

"Emmerich: I could tell them that I'd fence the stuff myself, you see, promise them cash on delivery. Then, when the time comes, I simply wouldn't have the cash, do you understand? I'd tell them it would take a few more days to raise it. I'm certain I could get them to leave the stuff with me while we're waiting...Well, then I'd disappear. I'd take a plane to another country, to another life. The gold and platinum, I could melt up and sell as bullion, you see. And the rocks - sell them one at a time. There'd be no hurry. They'd last a lifetime."

"Gus Minissi: Take my advice and knock off for a while. The happiness boys are on a rampage. Headquarters is givin' 'em a push...Go home, Dix, stay home. Don't get your flag at half-mast. Remember, you still got ol' Gus."

"I guess the scar isn't so bad, not if it's only on one side. I can always go through life sideways."

"Lee Marvin — Vince Stone"

"Gloria Grahame — Debby Marsh"

"Glenn Ford — Det. Sgt. Dave Bannion"

"A hard cop and a soft dame!"

"Somebody's going to pay ...because he forgot to kill me..."

"(inspecting Bannion's cheap hotel room) "I like this. Early Nothing.""

"Willis Bouchey — Lt. Ted Wilks"

"Peter Whitney — Tierney"

"Chris Alcaide — George Rose"

"Kathryn Eames — Bannion's sister-in-law"

"Adam Williams — Larry, the car bomber"

"Jocelyn Brando — Katie Bannion"

"Alexander Scourby — Mike Lagana"

"Jeanette Nolan — Bertha Duncan"

"He had to find her... he had to find her..."

"Natalie Wood - Debbie Edwards (older)"

"Ward Bond - Reverend Clayton"

"Vera Miles - Laurie Jorgensen"

"Jeffrey Hunter - Martin Pawley"

"John Wayne - Ethan Edwards"

"The Biggest, Roughest, Toughest ...and Most Beautiful Picture Ever Made!"

"Another speaker, Amanda Milius, is the daughter of John Milius, who was the screenwriter for the first two Dirty Harry films and Apocalypse Now. She grew up in L.A. and wound up in the Trump administration. She argued that America needs to get back to making self-confident movies like The Searchers, the 1956 John Ford Western. This was an unapologetic movie, she asserted, about how Americans tamed the West and how Christian values got brought to “savage, undeveloped land.” This is about as dumb a reading of The Searchers as it’s possible to imagine. The movie is actually the modern analogue to the Oresteia, by Aeschylus. The complex lead figure, played by John Wayne, is rendered barbaric and racist while fighting on behalf of westward pioneers. By the end, he is unfit to live in civilized society. But we don’t exactly live in an age that acknowledges nuance. Milius distorts the movie into a brave manifesto of anti-woke truths—and that sort of distortion has a lot of buyers among this crowd."

"It just so happens we be Texicans. Texican is nothin' but a human man way out on a limb, this year and next. Maybe for a hundred more. But I don't think it'll be forever. Some day, this country's gonna be a fine good place to be. Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come."

"[repeated line] That'll be the day !"