- Amafi: I'd give ten years of my life if I could do that. To be able to see the world only in sexual terms and to feel it - the way you do, Jazar.
- Cusset: The law will punish him, Monsieur.
- Shaft: F*ck the law! What is the law doing about the sh*theads who charge a hundred francs a month to stay in a crap house like this. Why don't you really clamp down on the slave trade? I'll tell you why. Because the black ghettos of Paris is as far away from the Champs Elysees as 125th Street is from Park Avenue! You need a bunch of po' bastards to work on your roads and your god damn kitchens! So, don't lay any of that law will punish 'em sh*t on me!
- Cusset: I remind you, Monsieur, you are now back in a civilized country where due process of law prevails.
- Col. Gonder: Inspector, I resent that implication. My country was - building churches while your people were still living in caves.
- Col. Gonder: Well, Mr. Shaft, it seems we've brought you a long distance for nothing. Obviously the opposition knows about you. If you choose to call it off, we'll understand.
- Shaft: What? And blow 25 grand?
- Col. Gonder: Only money brings you here?
- Shaft: Hell no! I just love to have my picture taken with lions.
- Shaft: Look, why don't you get rid of that jolly giant over there, so you and I can get down to the finer strokes.
- Aleme: Oziat has guarded me since I was a child. Sometimes I think of him as my living chastity belt.
- Shaft: Damn! - A man that size, baby, that's a whole lot of chastity!
- Aleme: I'm still on my first age grade. We call that fareita. No one is permitted to marry while they are in fareita.
- Shaft: What do you do for relaxation?
- Aleme: I enter chala, my second age grade, this February. Then, even the emir's daughter may have sex and marry, after my clitoradectomy.
- Shaft: Your what?
- Aleme: My clitoradectomy. Female circumcision.
- Shaft: You mean when they cut off your...?
- Aleme: Are you afraid to say the word? My clitoris! Yes! That's what they do in the time of chala.
- Shaft: Hell, no wonder the natives get restless!
- Aleme: Mr. Shaft, the emphasis in our marriage is not about sexual pleasure, but on the rearing of children.
- Shaft: Listen, baby. Now, February is just around the corner. Now how the hell are you gonna know what you are missing unless you give it a little wear and tear before they take it away?
- Aleme: Are you volunteering?
- Shaft: You're damn right!
- Osiat: Where are your stick?
- Aleme: It's time for your lesson.
- Amafi: Listen, Mr. Wassa. I don't love this young lady. I don't even particularly like her. But she's the only person in the world I've ever found who can get it up for me.
- Shaft: [looking at a naked prostitute with her arms crossed propping up her breast] No wonder they call Africa the mother country! Mama, I ain't gonna fight it.
- Parking Garage Attendent: Hey, some Africans are lookin' for you, brother.
- Shaft: I don't know any Africans, brother.
- Telephone Answering Service Operator: Is that you, Mr. Shaft?
- Col. Gonder: They 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for literally pennies. This, Mr. Shaft, is slavery - in the 20th century.
- Aleme: They vanished as mysteriously as they appeared. But, they left behind our spoken culture, their drums, their copper spears, their beaded crowns. Nobody knows what happened to them. But, our tribes are descendant from these proud... ancestors. Don't laugh, Mr. Shaft. Your survival depends on how much you can remember.
- Shaft: Who's laughing? I was just thinkin', they made us study Shakespeare in school. Man, was he a Johnny-Come-Lately, compared to your Cats groovin' on poetry a thousand years ago.
- Shaft: Who was the cat in drag who tried to kill me?
- Col. Gonder: A Sardinian named Boko, an assassin, long criminal record.
- Shaft: And the dude that - saved my ass?
- Col. Gonder: He works for us.
- Shaft: Okay, what about some iron?
- Col. Gonder: Iron?
- Shaft: A piece.
- Col. Gonder: No gun. Too difficult to hide and a dead giveaway if somebody searches your bag. Anyway, you've got your stick.
- Shaft: You can usually tell by the size of a man's nose or the length and thickness of his thumbs. I always look for a man with prominent nose and long, thick thumbs.
- Shaft: Look, get your stenographer in here and I'll give her ten minutes. And then I've got things to do.