Goodfellas

"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. To me, being a gangster was better than being President of the United States. Even before I first wandered into the cabstand for an after-school job, I knew I wanted to be a part of them. It was there that I knew that I belonged. To me, it meant being somebody in a neighborhood that was full of nobodies. They werent like anybody else. I mean, they did whatever they wanted. They double-parked in front of a hydrant and nobody ever gave them a ticket. In the summer when they played cards all night, nobody ever called the cops."

"Hundreds of guys depended on Paulie and he got a piece of everything they made. And it was tribute, just like in the old country, except they were doing it here in America. And all they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. And thats what its all about. Thats what the FBI could never understand. That what Paulie and the organization does is offer protection for people who cant go to the cops. Thats it. Thats all. Theyre like the police department for wiseguys."

"One day some of the kids from the neighborhood carried my mothers groceries all the way home. You know why? It was outta respect."

"Now the guys got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guys gotta come up with Paulies money every week, no matter what. Business bad? "Fuck you, pay me." Oh, you had a fire? "Fuck you, pay me." Place got hit by lightning, huh? "Fuck you, pay me." Also, Paulie could do anything. Especially run up bills on the joints credit. And why not? Nobodys gonna pay for it anyway. And as soon as the deliveries are made in the front door, you move the stuff out the back and sell it at a discount. You take a two hundred dollar case of booze and you sell it for a hundred. It doesnt matter. Its all profit. And then finally, when theres nothing left, when you cant borrow another buck from the bank or buy another case of booze, you bust the joint out. You light a match."

"For us to live any other way was nuts. Uh, to us, those goody-good people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks and took the subway to work every day and worried about their bills were dead. I mean they were suckers. They had no balls. If we wanted something, we just took it. If anyone complained twice they got hit so bad, believe me, they never complained again."

"Saturday night was for wives, but Friday night at the Copa was always for the girlfriends."

"[Henry and Jimmy are dangling a man who owes Paulie money over the lion enclosure at the Tampa Zoo] They must really feed each other to the lions down there because the guy gave the money right up and we got to spend the rest of the weekend at the track. Then I couldn’t believe what happened, when we got home, we were all over the newspaper. At first I didn’t even know why we got picked up but then I found out that the guy we roughed up turned out to have a sister working as a typist for the FBI. I couldn’t believe it. Of all the fucking people. She gave up everybody; Jimmy, me, even her brother. Took the jury six hours to bring us in guilty. The judge gave Jimmy and me ten years like he was giving away candy."

"See, you know when you think of prison, you get pictures in your mind of all those old movies with rows and rows of guys behind bars...But it wasnt like that for wiseguys. It really wasnt that bad. Excepting that I missed Jimmy. He was doing his time in Atlanta...I mean, everybody else in the joint was doing real time, all mixed together, living like pigs. But we lived alone. And we owned the joint."

"[after the Lufthansa heist] It made him sick to have to turn money over to the guys who stole it. Hed rather whack em. Anyway, what did I care? I wasnt asking for anything and besides, Jimmy was making nice money with me through my Pittsburgh connections. [showing a montage of dead gangsters] But still, months after the robbery they were finding bodies all over. [police surround a truck, open it to see a dead man hanging on a hook like a meat husk] When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff it took them two days to thaw him out for the autopsy."

"For a second, I thought I was dead, but when I heard all the noise I knew they were cops. Only cops talk that way. If they had been wiseguys, I wouldnt have heard a thing. I wouldve been dead."

"[about Tommys murder] It was revenge for Billy Batts, and a lot of other things. And there was nothing that we could do about it. Batts was a made man and Tommy wasnt. And we had to sit still and take it. It was among the Italians. It was real greaseball shit. They even shot Tommy in the face so his mother couldnt give him an open coffin at the funeral."

"Paulie mightve moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didnt have to move for anybody."