- Sandy: Why don't you take a good look at yourself. What do you see? A doctor? A scientist? A businessman? You see a scar-faced ex-con. A two-bit safecracker. A petty thief who don't know when he really made the big time. Where do you come off to blast her? No matter what she's been, what she's done. She's a giant! And you wanna know why? Well, I'll tell ya. Because she sees something in you worth saving. If only one tenth of one percent of all the good in her could rub off on you, you'd be a giant, too. But you're a midget! In your head, in your heart, in your whole makeup. You're a midget!
- Tolly Devlin: [Leaning over Vic in his hospital bed] You're dyin', Vic. You know why you thought you saw me before? I'm a dead ringer for my father, Tom Devlin.
- Vic Farrar: [Weakly] Devlin?
- Tolly Devlin: Yeah. You beat him to death that night. You and your three pals. You remember, Vic?
- Vic Farrar: Forgive me.
- Tolly Devlin: Forgive you?
- Vic Farrar: I gotta die with a clean slate.
- Tolly Devlin: Who were the other guys?
- Vic Farrar: I'm no fink.
- Tolly Devlin: You want to meet your Maker with a clean slate, don't you?
- Vic Farrar: Yeah, yeah. I gotta.
- Tolly Devlin: You're gonna meet Him in a couple of minutes. Now you tell me who the other guys were.
- Tolly Devlin: Mr. Gela, when I was a kid, I seen a messy thing. I seen four shadows on a wall kill a guy. You know, I never could rub that out of my mind. 'Cause the guy was my old man.
- Gela: Huh?
- Tolly Devlin: That's right. You know, it took me 20 years to find the faces of them shadows. But I found 'em. The first guy... he conked out in a hospital asking me to forgive him. Vic Farrar. The second one... he's getting' the chair. Smith. The third one... he got barbecued. Gunther. There's one punk left, Mr. Gela. That's you. You wrap up the package.
- Police Chief Fowler: Connie, we've always leveled with each other. I'm washed up.
- Connie Fowler: What are you talking about?
- Police Chief Fowler: I've been on the take. I've been getting $5,000 a week for turning my back on dope trafficking and prostitution. I'm sorry, Connie. I haven't got the stomach to face your mother.
- Connie Fowler: You'll have to. I'm not gonna tell her. I don't know what you did with all that money, but you're gonna have to tell her this yourself. Those lectures you gave the rookies every year. Telling them that the lowest crook in the world is a crooked cop. Why did you do it? Why?
- Police Chief Fowler: Because they threatened to chop your mother in a meat grinder and send the pieces to me in a basket. You're alive. That's all that counts to me. You and mother are alive.
- Sandy: [tending to Tolly's facial wound] If there was a prize given for the world's worst old man, your father would cop it. He's learnin' you to be nothin' but a punk like him.
- Tolly Devlin - Aged 14: He's learnin' me to hustle.
- Sandy: Oh, sure. Dodgin' truant officers, rollin' drunks, lyin' to welfare workers. He's teachin' you how to hustle, all right. Right into the electric chair.
- Tolly Devlin: You know them four gonzos that bumped my father off?
- Gela: Yeah?
- Tolly Devlin: They got paid off. Burned to death in a car wreck.
- Gela: Who told you that?
- Tolly Devlin: Vic. Died in my arms in a hospital. I ain't takin' no package from you.
- Gela: You tryin' to tell me that you're dumpin' 50 grand just because of sentiment?
- Tolly Devlin: It would be like tappin' my own father.
- John Driscoll: The syndicate bosses in the field command the rackets like generals in the field command divisions. And lording it over the syndicate wheels is the top brass. The underworld's combined chiefs of staff. Each chief commands a specific department. Gela, narcotics. Gunther, labor. Smith, prostitution. And so on. They all have substantial business fronts, pay taxes, wear respectable suits. And lording it over all of them is Earl Connors, their chief of staff.
- John Driscoll: Tolly, I know it's been like a disease with you since you were a kid, but you're a grown-up now. Act like it! Don't eat your heart out with hate and revenge. Look at you what you've done with your life. Nothin'. One year in one prison. Two years in another. The last, rap? Five years. Look, you're only on this earth once so take advantage of it. Enjoy it! Live it!
- Cuddles: [to Tolly] All my life it's been near misses with every guy. Until I met you. You're more than that now. Now I know something I never thought I'd know. We got a right to climb out of the sewer and live like other people. We could start from scratch. Make every minute count twice for the one we lost.
- Cuddles: I never felt like this before.
- Tolly Devlin: How do you feel?
- Cuddles: Well, some women, when they kiss, blush. Some call the cops. Some swear, some bite. Some laugh, some cry. Me? I die, Tolly. I die inside when you kiss me.
- Cuddles: You're not smart. You know why you're not smart, Tolly? 'Cause the day's gonna come when you want out and the only way you're gonna get off their payroll is on a nice, big, cold marble slab. You know how I know? 'Cause I got one waitin' for me.
- Earl Connors: [to his crime henchmen] I'm stretchin' the rubberband from coast to coast. I want to hear it snap. There are at least 13 million kids in this country between the ages of 10 and 15. Don't tell me the end of a needle has a conscience. Put more field men to work around the schools.
- John Driscoll: The underworld is reaching the young people of this country. Our job is to get people to prosecute. Ha! Getting anybody to talk is tough. Families of informers have been butchered, burned, bludgeoned to death.
- Sandy: If they find you here, they'll kill you too. You've got a job to do. You gotta sing on Smith
- Cuddles: I don't care about Smith.
- Sandy: You've got to finish the job for Tolly. Or he died for nothing.
- Cuddles: [after a pause] Come on.
- Sandy: [to Tolly] No matter what she's been, what she's done, she's a giant. And you want to know why? Well, I'll tell you. Because she sees something in you worth saving. If only one-tenth of one percent of all the good in her could rub off on you, you'd be a giant too. But you're a midget! In your head, in your heart, in your whole makeup. You're a midget!
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