All Quotes

"Imaro exploded. "Why do men fight like starving lions over yellow metal and let valuable cattle go?""

"It’s true, laws were enacted to serve specific trials. We passed the Schifani ruling—later declared unconstitutional, and in fact it was unconstitutional in some respects—to allow Berlusconi to govern (October 9, 2004)"

"This ruling [on the unconstitutionality of the Pecorella Law] could reopen trials already before the Court of Cassation, and the decisive factor will once again be not the oral and public trial in the first instance, but the appeal based on written documents."

"I say that among the motives cited (for the murder of Don Peppino Diana) in the trial records, there are some of the most diverse. During the trial, some spoke of revenge out of jealousy, others reported that he was killed because they wanted to divert the investigations that were underway regarding another criminal group. And others also reported that he kept the clan’s weapons. No one has ever said why this murder took place, given that there were no precedents to reconstruct the facts. If one is familiar with the trial documents, one knows that various motives are cited by different sources. [...] There are various motives; there is also the one—which did not emerge at first—that he was engaged in anti-Camorra activities. To tell the truth, even this did not emerge very clearly as a motive during the trial. It is pointless for us to build fantasies around hypotheses. His anti-Camorra activism is among the hypotheses. But during the trial, it did not emerge in a striking way; there was never any mention of mass mobilization or people taking to the streets. It’s not as if there had been public demonstrations or documents. Someone also cited this reason. As you can see, there are many motives. Certainly, he was killed by the Camorra. Anyone killed by the Camorra is a victim of the Camorra. Now, if he is a martyr, we must understand that from the motive, which has not been clarified."

"A paid sexual encounter not with a 14-year-old but with a girl who was six months shy of being of age. Legally, that’s how it is [a minor]. But she was six months away, and it doesn’t seem to me—allow me the irony regarding my surname—that she was some poor lost lamb. As for me, though this is a personal opinion, I believe that today the age of majority is too high compared to the maturity young people have reached."

"In any case, I did not propose the decree [the so-called Biondi Decree]; it was Berlusconi."

"(About the debate between a hard line and negotiation during the Moro case) There is no need to divide ourselves into hawks and doves; there is no need to misrepresent the spirit of renunciation and submission as warm humanitarianism, or, as cold statism, the basic requirement of not compromising on inalienable rights and duties, such as the duty to deliver justice and ensure the equality of citizens before the law."

"The liberals are in the government, but Forza Italia is controlled by the Christian Democrats, the Socialists, the Communists, and former Fininvest employees."

"(About the description of Silvio Berlusconi as a liberal) In economic terms. Otherwise, he's a bit of a Christian Democrat and a bit of a Craxi supporter."

"(About Silvio Berlusconi) Now he has to deal with what he calls the “theater of politics,” which requires dialogue, while he prefers monologues."

"Dini is a high-ranking official at the Bank of Italy with the strengths and limitations of someone who lends money to those who already have it."

"If you lose a bird you can always replace her. But with a child it's different."

"My understanding of women only goes as far as the pleasure. When it comes to the pain I'm like any other bloke - I don't want to know."

"A married woman, see. Every one of 'em in need of a good laugh. It don't never strike their husbands. I always say, make a married woman laugh and you're halfway there with her. Of course, it don't work with the single bird. Start you off on the wrong foot. You get one of them laughing, you won't get nothing else."

"What I loved once and what I love now are two different things."

"I've never told her that I love her - except at those times when you've got to say something for appearance's sake."

"[about Gilda's appearance while she is pregnant] Mind you, she came over quite beautified for a while, particularly during the early months. And I told her: I said "Blimey, girl, you ain't as ugly as I thought"."

"I don't want no bird's respect - I wouldn't know what to do with it."

"She's got a little ginger moustache. But I find I'm quite willing to overlook the odd blemish in a woman, providing she's got something to make up for it. Well, that's what we're all here for, innit - to help each other out in this life."

"Millicent Martin - Siddie"

"Vivien Merchant - Lily Clamacraft"

"Jane Asher - Annie"

"Julia Foster - Gilda"

"Shirley Anne Field - Carla"

"Eleanor Bron - the Doctor"

"Denholm Elliott - Abortionist"

"Alfie Bass - Harry Clamacraft"

"Graham Stark - Humphrey"

"Murray Melvin - Nat"

"Sydney Tafler - Frank"

"As a lawyer, I've had to learn that people aren't just good or just bad. People are many things."

"The prosecution would like to separate the motive from the act. Well, that's like trying to take the core from an apple without breaking the skin."

"I'm just a humble country lawyer trying to do the best I can against this brilliant prosecutor from the big city of Lansing."

"[after cross-examining a convicted felon] Your Honor, I don't think I can dignify this - -creature - - with any more questions."

"Look, Laura, believe me, I don't usually complain of an attractive jiggle, but just you save that jiggle for your husband to look at, if and when I get him out of jail."

"Twelve people go off into a room: twelve different minds, twelve different hearts, from twelve different walks of life; twelve sets of eyes, ears, shapes, and sizes. And these twelve people are asked to judge another human being as different from them as they are from each other. And in their judgment, they must become of one mind - unanimous. It's one of the miracles of Man's disorganized soul that they can do it, and in most instances, do it right well. God bless juries."

"The lieutenant goes to Quill's place and plugs Mr. Quill about five times, which causes Mr. Quill to promptly die of lead poisoning."

"You know I used to think the world looked better through a glass of whiskey. It doesn't. I think I'll keep it this way. Looks nice."

"One judge is quite like another. The only differences may be in the state of their digestions or their proclivities for sleeping on the bench. For myself, I can digest pig iron. And while I might appear to doze occasionally, you will find that I am easily awakened, particularly if shaken gently by a good lawyer with a nice point of law."

"For the benefit of the jury, but more especially for the spectators, The garment mentioned in the testimony was, to be exact, Mrs. Manion's panties. [spectators roar with laughter] I wanted to get your snickering over and done with. This pair of panties will be mentioned again over the course of this trial, and when it is, there will not be one laugh, one snicker, one giggle or even one smirk in my courtroom. There is nothing comic about a pair of panties that resulted in the violent death of one man and the possible incarceration of another."

"Now, Mr. Dancer, get off the panties. You've done enough damage."

"James Stewart - Paul Biegler"

"Lee Remick - Laura Manion"

"Ben Gazzara - Lt. Frederick Manion"

"Arthur O'Connell - Parnell Emmett McCarthy"

"Eve Arden - Maida Rutledge"

"Kathryn Grant - Mary Pilant"

"George C. Scott - Claude Dancer"

"Orson Bean - Dr. Matthew Smith"

"Russ Brown - George Lemon"