"You rearrange the dead families into an audience to see what you do. You think that what you do will make you into something different. You are becoming. What is it you think you're becoming? The answer is in the way you use the mirrors. What do the mirrors make you dream you're becoming?"

"Before me, you are a slug in the sun. You are privy to a great becoming, but you recognize nothing. You are an ant in the afterbirth. It is in your nature to do one thing correctly: Tremble. But fear is not what you owe me. No, Lounds... you and the others — you owe me awe!"

"Take my word for it. I'm smiling."

"That's the same atrocious aftershave you wore in court three years ago."

"Have you ever seen blood in the moonlight, Will? It appears quite black."

"[walking with reporters over his draft-evasion charges] I ain't draft dodging. I ain't burning no flag. I ain't running to Canada. I'm staying right here. You want to send me to jail? Fine, you go right ahead. I've been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for four or five more, but I ain't going no 10,000 miles to help murder and kill other poor people. If I want to die, I'll die right here, right now, fightin' you, if I want to die. You my enemy, not no Chinese, no Vietcong, no Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won't even stand up for me right here in America, for my rights and my religious beliefs. You won't even stand up for my right here at home!"

"One thousand dollars to the man who brings me Howard Cosell's toupee, dead or alive."

"[Rumble in the Jungle, end of 7th Round, talking to himself towards George Foreman] Can't let you get that second wind which you don't even know is there for you. You want the title? Want to wear the heavyweight crown? Nose broke, jaw smashed, face busted in? You ready for that? Is that you? 'Cause you facing a man who will die before he lets you win."

"Belinda/Khalilah Ali: [talking about Don King's reputation] Don King talks black, lives white and thinks green."

"Don King: Muhammad Ali, the People's Champion, my black brother! I need you. I need your strength. I need you to find a way to get George to stay. Be Moses in reverse - do NOT let my people go. Keep them the fuck right here, in Egypt, if you pardon my Swahili."

"Will Smith - Cassius Marcellus Clay AKA Muhammad Ali"

"Jamie Foxx - Drew Bundini Brown"

"Jon Voight - Howard Cosell"

"Mykelti Williamson - Don King"

"Nona Gaye - Belinda/Khalilah Ali"

"[reacting to potential fallout over his comments about the Vietcong] So what? So what? I ain't got to be what nobody else want me to be and I ain't afraid to be what I wanna be."

"Peter Berg - Richard Weidner"

"Javier Bardem - Felix"

"I am a cool guy, with a job I contracted to do."

"Irma P. Hall - Ida"

"Barry Shabaka Henley - Daniel"

"Bruce McGill - Pedrosa"

"[after the nightclub shootout] Only thing that didn't show up is the Polish cavalry."

"Don't get me cornered. You don't have the trunk space."

"If you open that trunk, they go inside."

"Yo, homie. Is that my briefcase?"

"[after Max crashes the cab] Well, that was brilliant..."

"[after Max destroys his briefcase] All my prep was in there! You are screwing with my work! Let's see what else you can do."

"Max, I do this for a living!"

"You attract attention, you're going to get people killed who didn't need to be."

"Most people, ten years from now, same job, same place, same routine. Everything the same. Just keeping it safe over and over and over. Ten years from now. Man, you don’t know where you’ll be ten minutes from now . . ."

"[aims a handgun at Max] Red light, Max."

"Get with it. Millions of galaxies of hundreds of millions of stars, and a speck on one in a blink. That's us, lost in space. The cop, you, me... Who notices?"

"[Mockingly] "Someday, someday my dream will come?" One night you'll wake up and you'll discover it never happened. It's all turned around on you, and it never will. Suddenly you are old. It didn't happen, and it never will because you were never going to do it anyway. You'll push it into memory, then zone out in your barcalounger, being hypnotized by daytime TV for the rest of your life. Don't you talk to me about murder. All it ever took was a down payment on a Lincoln Town Car, and that girl... you can't even call that girl. What the fuck are you still doing driving a cab?"

"Six hours he's riding the subway before anybody notices his corpse doing laps around L.A., people on and off sitting next to him. Nobody notices."

"Hey, Max, a guy gets on the MTA here in L.A. and dies. Think anybody will notice?"

"There's no good reason, there's no bad reason to live or to die."