Michael Constantine - Big John — The Hustler

"They called him "Fast Eddie"... He was a winner... He was a loser... He was a hustler."

"[After discovering that Charlie kept some money from him] With that fifteen hundred, I could have beat him. Thats all I needed, Charlie... Youd love to keep me hustlin for ya, huh, wouldnt ya? I mean, a couple more years with me scufflin around in them little towns and those back alleys, you might make yourself enough to get a little pool room back in Oakland, six tables and a handbook on the side... Lay down and die by yourself."

"[to Eddie] George Findley is a very rich man. His grandfather left him twenty-five percent of his tobacco company... Hes a gentleman. Gentlemen gamble. He gets his kicks playin a hustler. Hes got an old Southern mansion with a pool table in the basement, drinks eight-year-old bourbon, smokes a cork-tipped cigarette... I never saw him play. They say hes one of the best... Ive got confidence in Findley... That means Ive got confidence that hes a loser, all the way a loser. You happen to be about only one-half loser, the other half winner."

"He is great! Geez, that old fat man. Look at the way he moves, like a dancer... And those fingers, them marshmellow fingers. And that stroke, its like hes, uh, like hes playin a violin or somethin."

"A motion picture that probes the stranger... the pick-up... why a man hustles for a buck or a place in the sun!"

"Now why did I do it, Sarah, why did I do it? I couldve beat that guy, I couldve beat him cold. He never would have known. But I just had to show him. Just had to show those creeps and those punks what the game is like when its great, when its really great. You know, like anything can be great, anything can be great. I dont care — brick-laying can be great if a guy knows. If he knows what hes doin and why and if he can make it come off."