"Virgil: Now the first time you kill somebody, that's the hardest. I don't give a shit if you're fuckin' Wyatt Earp or Jack the Ripper. Remember that guy in Texas? The guy up in that fuckin' tower that killed all them people? I'll bet you green money that first little black dot he took a bead on, that was the bitch of the bunch. First one is tough, no fuckin' foolin'. The second one... the second one ain't no fuckin' Mardi Gras either, but it's better than the first one 'cause you still feel the same thing, y'know... except it's more diluted, y'know it's... it's better. I threw up on the first one, you believe that? Then the third one... the third one is easy, you level right off. It's no problem. Now... shit... now I do it just to watch their fuckin' expression change."

"Drexl Spivey: Now I know I'm pretty, but I ain't as pretty as a couple of titties."

"Elliot Blitzer: Hi. How are you? My name's Elliot, and I'm with the Cub Scouts of America. We're... we're selling uncut cocaine to get to the jamboree."

"Amid the chaos of that day, when all I could hear was the thunder of gunshots, and all I could smell was the violence in the air, I look back and am amazed that my thoughts were so clear and true, that three words went through my mind endlessly, repeating themselves like a broken record: you're so cool, you're so cool, you're so cool. And sometimes Clarence asks me what I would have done if he had died, if that bullet had been two inches more to the left. To this, I always smile, as if I'm not going to satisfy him with a response. But I always do. I tell him of how I would want to die, but that the anguish and the want of death would fade like the stars at dawn, and that things would be much as they are now. Perhaps. Except maybe I wouldn't have named our son Elvis."

"I had to come all the way from the highways and byways of Tallahassee, Florida to Motor City, Detroit to find my true love. If you gave me a million years to ponder, I would never have guessed that true romance and Detroit would ever go together. And to this day, the events that followed all seem like a distant dream. But the dream was real and was to change our lives forever. I kept asking Clarence why our world seemed to be collapsing and everything seemed so shitty. And he'd say, 'That's the way it goes, but don't forget, it goes the other way too.' That's the way romance is. Usually, that's the way it goes. But every once in awhile, it goes the other way too."

"I'm gonna go jump in the tub and get all slippery and soapy and then hop in that waterbed and watch X-rated movies 'till you get your ass back in my lovin' arms."

"Please shut up! I'm trying to come clean, okay? I've been a call-girl for exactly four days and you're my third customer. I want you to know that I'm not damaged goods. I'm not what they call Florida white trash. I'm a good person and when it comes to relationships, I'm one-hundred percent, I'm one hundred percent... monogamous."

"[Peeling out in reverse into oncoming traffic] We now return to Bullitt already in progress."

"I've been in America all my life. I've always wanted to see what TV in other countries looks like."

"[About Sonny Chiba] Well, he ain't so much a good guy as he is just a bad motherfucker. I mean, he gets paid by people to fuck guys up, you know?"

"You just said you love me, now if I say I love you and just throw caution to the wind and let the chips fall where they may and you're lying to me I'm gonna fuckin' die."

"If there's one thing this last week has taught me, it's better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it."

"I always said, if I had to fuck a guy... I mean had to, if my life depended on it... I'd fuck Elvis."

"After living in the USA for more than thirty-five years they called me an undesirable alien. Me. Johnny Rocco. Like I was a dirty Red or something!"

"One Rocco more or less isn't worth dying for!"

"Claire Trevor — Gaye Dawn"

"William Haade — Ralph Feeney"

"When your head says one thing and your whole life says another, your head always loses."

"You don't like it, do you Rocco, the storm? Show it your gun, why don't you? If it doesn't stop, shoot it."

"Lionel Barrymore — James Temple"

"Thomas Gomez — Richard "Curly" Hoff"

"Harry Lewis — Edward "Toots" Bass"

"Lauren Bacall — Nora Temple"

"Edward G. Robinson — Johnny Rocco"

"Humphrey Bogart — Frank McCloud"

"Key Largo, a lonely island off the coast of Florida, sultry, heat-ridden, cloaked in the strange menace of the sea. But stranger still is the destiny that brings these people to this remote outpost, to be held at bay with a price on their lives, by a man with a price on his head."

"Hold your course, you're headed straight for Key Largo, Kay Largo..."

"Richard "Curly" Hoff: She is a lush, the lady...after she bends the elbow a few times, she begins to see things—rats, roaches, bats, you know...a sock in the kisser is the only thing that will bring her out of it."

"Edward "Toots" Bass: I say smack her and let it go at that."

"Charlie! Charlie Winook and his family, Crawfish Island. Charlie's a prince of the Seminole Nation. His ancestors go back to the gods. He sells sea shells by the sea shore."

"[praying] Make a big wave. Send it down on us. Destroy us all if need be, but punish HIM."