"This is going to be murder and it's going to be legal. I want to live, but I want to vanish. I want to go away and change my name and never be heard of again. But that costs money and it isn't as easy nowadays. If they're looking for you, they'll find you, unless they think you're dead. They'll find you even on the smallest island in the South Seas. That's where I'm gonna be, fella, on that smallest island...I want to live on that island in peace. That won't be possible unless the world is satisfied that I don't exist. You know, the law's a funny thing, fella. The state of California will say I'm dead, officially dead, if somebody will say they murdered me. [He chuckles.] That's what I'm paying you for...You swear you killed me, but you can't be arrested. That's the law. Look it up for yourself. There's no such thing as homicide unless they find a corpse. It just isn't murder if they don't find a body. According to the law, I'm dead IF you say you murdered me. But you're not a murderer unless I'm dead. Silly, isn't it?"

"Mr. Bannister tells me you once killed a man. You are Michael, aren't you?...I'm very interested in murders. Forgive me if I seem inquisitive, but where'd it happen?...How'd you do it? No, let me guess. You did it with your hands, didn't you? Does it ever bother you when you think about it? What did he do to you?...You just killed him for the fun of it, eh?...Then it wasn't murder, I suppose. Tell me, would you do it again? Would you mind killing another man?...Would you kill me if I gave you the chance? I may give you the chance."

"[to Elsa, as he is dying] You know, for a smart girl, you make a lot of mistakes. You should have let me live. You're gonna need a good lawyer."

"I knew I'd find you two together. If I hadn't, Elsa, I might have gone on playing it your way. You didn't know that, but you did plan for me to follow you...I presume you think that if you murder me here, your sailor friend will get the blame and you'll be free to spend my money. Well, dear, you aren't the only one who wants me to die. Our good friend, the District Attorney, is just itching to open a letter that I left with him. The letter tells all about you, lover. So you'd be foolish to fire that gun. With these mirrors, it's difficult to tell. You are aiming at me, aren't you? I'm aiming at you, lover. Of course, killing you is killing myself. It's the same thing. But you know, I'm pretty tired of both of us."

"[to Michael] This is one case I've enjoyed losing. I'm coming to see you in the Death House, Michael, every day. Our little visits will be great fun. I'm going to ask for a stay of execution, and I really hope it will be granted. I want you to live as long as possible before you die...I've got an edge. I know you're going to the gas chamber."

"That's the first time anyone ever thought enough of you to call you a shark. If you were a good lawyer, you'd be flattered."

"I went to call the cops, but I knew she'd be dead before they got there and I'd be free. Bannister's note to the DA would fix it. I'd be innocent officially, but that's a big word - innocence. Stupid's more like it. Well, everybody is somebody's fool. The only way to stay out of trouble is to grow old, so I guess I'll concentrate on that. Maybe I'll live so long that I'll forget her. Maybe I'll die trying."

"I was right. She was the killer. She killed Grisby. Now she was going to kill me. Her servant Li and his friends smuggled me out into the darkness and hid me where I'd be safe from the cops, not safe from her. One of the Chinese worked in an amusement park. It was closed for the season. An empty amusement park makes a good hide-out and she wanted me hidden. Well, I came to in the Crazy House and for a while there, I thought it was me that was crazy. After what I'd been through, anything crazy at all seemed natural. But now I was sane on one subject - her. I knew about her. She planned to kill Bannister, she and Grisby. Grisby was to do it for a share of Bannister's money. That's what Grisby thought, but of course, she meant to kill Grisby too after he'd served his purpose. Poor howling idiot, he never even did that. He went and shot Broome, and that was not part of the plan. Broome might have got to the police before he died. And if the cops traced it to Grisby, and the cops made Grisby talk, he'd spill everything and she'd be finished. So she had to shut up Grisby but quick. And I was the fall guy."

"[voiceover] I began to ask myself if I wasn't out of my head entirely. The wrong man was arrested. The wrong man was shot. Grisby was dead and so was Broome. And what about Bannister? He was going to defend me in a trial for my life. And me, charged with a couple of murders I did not commit. Either me or the rest of the whole world is absolutely insane."

"[Michael's pre-signed confession note] I, Michael O'Hara, in order to live in peace with my God, do freely make the following confession...We arrived at the boat landing at approximately 10:20. Mr. Grisby said he heard a sound, something suspicious. He said he was frightened of a hold-up and asked me to get the gun out of the side pocket of the car just in case. I reached in and got the gun, but I had hardly taken hold of it when the gun went off by accident in my hand, and I saw that Mr. Grisby was all covered with blood. It took me a minute to realize that Mr. Grisby was dead, to realize that I, Michael O'Hara, had killed him."

"[voiceover] It was early October when we made San Francisco, and dropped anchor across the bay from the city in Sausalito. It had been a most interesting cruise, all very rich and rare and strange. But I had had no stomach for it. To begin with, living on a hook takes away your appetite. You have no taste for any pleasure at all but the one that's burnin' in you. But even without an appetite, I had heard it's quite amazing how much a fool like me can swallow."

"[describing Acapulco] There's a fair face to the land, surely, but you can't hide the hunger and guilt. It's a bright, guilty world."

"Once, off the hump of Brazil I saw the ocean so darkened with blood it was black and the sun fainting away over the lip of the sky. We'd put in at Fortaleza, and a few of us had lines out for a bit of idle fishing. It was me had the first strike. A shark it was. Then there was another, and another shark again, 'till all about, the sea was made of sharks and more sharks still, and no water at all. My shark had torn himself from the hook, and the scent, or maybe the stain it was, and him bleeding his life away drove the rest of them mad. Then the beasts took to eating each other. In their frenzy, they ate at themselves.You could feel the lust of murder like a wind stinging your eyes, and you could smell the death, reeking up out of the sea. I never saw anything worse... until this little picnic tonight. And you know, there wasn't one of them sharks in the whole crazy pack that survived."

"I never make up my mind about anything at all until it's over and done with."

"Talk of money and murder. I must be insane, or else all these people are lunatics."

"Personally, I don't like a girlfriend to have a husband. If she'll fool her husband, I figure she'll fool me."

"That's how I found her, and from that moment on, I did not use my head very much, except to be thinking of her."

"When I start out to make a fool of myself, there's very little can stop me. If I'd known where it would end, I'd never let anything start, if I'd been in my right mind, that is. But once I'd seen her, once I'd seen her, I was not in my right mind for quite some time...me, with plenty of time and nothing to do but get myself in trouble. Some people can smell danger, not me."

"New York is not as big a city as it pretends to be."

"I've always found it very... sanitary to be broke."

"I understand very well what he wants...Tell him I'm a married woman, and that my husband is a great big official in the government, ready and willing to knock out all those pretty front teeth of his."

"Mort Mills - Al Schwartz, district attorney's assistant"

"Valentin de Vargas - Pancho, Grandi hood"

"Dennis Weaver - Mirador Motel night manager"

"Ray Collins - District Attorney Adair"

"Joseph Calleia - Police Sergeant Pete Menzies"

"Marlene Dietrich - Tana"

"Akim Tamiroff - 'Uncle' Joe Grandi"

"Orson Welles - Police Captain Hank Quinlan"

"Janet Leigh - Susan 'Susie' Vargas"

"Charlton Heston - Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas"

"Pete Menzies: [to Vargas, about Quinlan] Sure. You can smear him. Ruin his whole life's work. Vargas, I-I don't even know what he is. That's what you've done to him....He's on an important case and he's disappeared. Good and drunk probably."

"Pete Menzies: [to Vargas, about Quinlan's bad leg] He got it in a gun fight...He was wounded stopping a bullet that was meant for me."

"Marcia Linnekar: I guess that's my father. I'm not acquainted with my father's girlfriends."

"We are both after the same exact thing, Captain. If Vargas goes on like this, shooting his face off...Somebody's reputation has got to be ruined. Why shouldn't it be Vargas's?"

"We're gonna get him where it really hurts and without laying a hand on him. He's got a reputation. He's got a young bride. He's gonna leave this town wishing he and that wife of his had never been born."

"Until he gets out, who's running this outfit?...Oh, what a set-up to work with! One brother in jail, two others dead, and nobody left to carry on the business for the bunch of nephews."

"Of course, even on his honeymoon, the chairman of the Pan-American Narcotics Commission has a sacred duty to perform."

"Don't you think I could have been rich? A cop in my position. What do I have...after thirty years, a little turkey ranch - that's all I got. A couple of acres."

"[after being shot by Menzies] Pete. That's the second bullet I, I stopped for you."

"[Quinlan fires a pistol at Vargas, not hitting him] That wasn't no miss, Vargas. That was just to turn you 'round, so I don't have to shoot you in the back. Unless you'd rather run for it."

"[to Menzies] Look out. Vargas'll turn you into one of these here starry-eyed idealists. They're the ones making all the real trouble in the world. Be careful, they're worse than crooks. You can always do something with a crook."

"[about Vargas] He's a drug addict. He's got that young wife of his hooked too, but good. If I hadn't seen that hypodermic myself...That's how come he happens to imagine all those crazy things. It's typical. What that wife of his was doing on that dive on skid row. Both a couple of junkies. Course he's using the job as a cover-up."

"30 years of pounding beats and riding cars, 30 years of dirt and crummy pay. For 30 years, I gave my life to this department. And you allow this foreigner to accuse me. Answer, answer, why do I have to answer him? No sir! I won't take back that badge until the people of this county want me back."

"[about his wife's killer] I followed around after him...ate my heart out trying to catch him but I never did. That was the last killer that ever got out of my hands."

"Listen, I got a position in this town, a reputation...somebody's gonna be ruined."

"There's an old lady on Main Street last night picked up a shoe. The shoe had a foot in it. We're going to make you pay for that mess."

"How can I leave here until my wife's name is clean? Clean!"