When Robert Altman decided to adapt Edward Anderson's book, Altman was not at all aware that Nicholas Ray had previously adapted the book as the cult classic They Live by Night (1948).
Actor John Schuck, who played Chicamaw, once said of this film's release and reception: "Thieves [Like Us] was a picture that was so non-mainstream that the studio had no idea how to promote it. They treated it like a bank-robbery movie, which it isn't, of course. And thank God for television and cable and all that. It's developed a sort of cult following and it got extraordinary reviews...But it was released and went in a few weeks".
Robert Altman personally cut Shelley Duvall's hair for the scene between Bowie and Keechie on the porch.
In "Robert Altman: The Oral Biography" (2009) by Mitchell Zuckoff, co-screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury said: "We couldn't get any movie financed and he had a book he needed to be adapted, 'Thieves Like Us'. I read it and adapted it in about four days for him. By this time I had been around Bob long enough. It's almost like when you find a really good dance partner you know where the next step's going to go. It's not that you anticipate it, but you can relax enough to go with it . . . The money fell out for the project about three times. It was really by the grace of George Litto and Bob [Altman] and the other producer, Jerry Bick, standing in a room and practically mortgaging their houses and saying, "Let's go ahead." It was a really good lesson in terms of not backing down."