"Is that what this is about? You're angry because you got lied to? Is that why my chicken dinner is drying out in the oven? Hey, they lie to everybody. They lie to the fish! But that doesn't give you any special right to do what you did today."

"Did you know, Beth, in certain South American countries it's still legal to kill your wife if she insults you?"

"I've passed the point of no return, Beth. You know when that is? That's the point in a journey where it's longer to go back to the beginning than it is to continue to the end. It's like...Do you remember when those astronauts got in trouble when they were going to the moon and something went wrong? I don't know, somebody screwed up and they had to get them back to Earth, but they had passed the point of no return. So, they had to go all the way around the moon to get back, and they were out of contact for hours. Everybody waited breathlessly to see if a bunch of dead guys in a can would pop out the other side, and that's me. I'm on the other side of the moon now, out of contact, and everybody's just going to have to wait until I pop out."

"I lost my job. Actually I didn't lose it. It lost me. I'm overeducated, underskilled. Maybe it's the other way around. I forget, but I'm obsolete. I'm not economically viable. I can't even support my own kid."

"Why have you put barbed wire on a fence? Is this how you rich people amuse yourselves? You put barbed wire on the fence so innocent people like me can hurt our hands looking in, huh?"

"God bless the working stiff!"

"[ Foster approaches the gang after they crashed] You missed. [picks up the UZI and shoots, barely missing the only survivor] I missed too. [the survivor begs for mercy; Foster shoots him in the leg] You see, that's the concept. Take some shooting lessons, asshole."

"[Before destroying merchandise in a Korean drug store] I'm rolling prices back to 1965! What do you think of that?"

"You may well reap the benefit, Edmund, but are you truly prepared to be despised within the department?"

"(At the end of an interrogation session) You know, I'm talking about the gas chamber, and you haven't even asked me what this is about. You've got a big "Guilty" sign around your neck."

"Don't start trying to do the right thing, boyo. You haven't had the practice."

"Go back to Jersey, sonny. This is the city of the angels and you haven't got any wings."

"(after Bud sees pictures of Ed with Lynn) I wouldn't trade places with Edmund Exley right now for all the whiskey in Ireland."

"David Strathairn - Pierce Patchett"

"Danny DeVito - Sid Hudgens"

"James Cromwell - Capt. Dudley Smith"

"Kevin Spacey - Jack Vincennes"

"Kim Basinger - Lynn Bracken"

"Russell Crowe - Bud White"

"Wendell, I'd like full and docile co-operation on every topic..."

"Guy Pearce - Det. Lt. Edmund Exley"

"It's a crime saga that will shock you. It's a mystery that will keep you guessing. It's a thriller that will keep you riveted."

"Everything is suspect...everyone is for sale...and nothing is what it seems."

"Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush..."

"It would be easier for you if there was an angle wouldn't it? You're afraid of Bud because you can't figure out how to play him. He doesn't follow the same rules of politics as you do. It makes him dangerous. I see Bud because I want to. I see Bud because he can't hide the good inside of him. I see Bud because he makes me feel like Lynn Bracken and not some Veronica Lake look-alike who fucks for money. I see Bud because he doesn't know how to disguise who he is. I see Bud for all the ways he's different from you."

"(to a person he has just fatally shot) Have you a valediction, boyo?"