Charles Bronson credited as playing...
Paul Kersey
- Paul Kersey: Nothing to do but cut and run, huh? What else? What about the old American social custom of self-defense? If the police don't defend us, maybe we ought to do it ourselves.
- Jack Toby: We're not pioneers anymore, Dad.
- Paul Kersey: What are we, Jack?
- Jack Toby: What do you mean?
- Paul Kersey: I mean, if we're not pioneers, what have we become? What do you call people who, when they're faced with a condition or fear, do nothing about it. They just run and hide?
- Jack Toby: Civilized?
- Paul Kersey: No.
- Paul Kersey: [Kersey confronts the mugger who wounded him in the leg] Hey!
- [the mugger faces Kersey and knows Kersey has the drop on him]
- Paul Kersey: Fill your hand.
- Mugger: [puzzled, evidently not familiar with the old-West metaphor] Huh?
- Paul Kersey: Draw.
- [Kersey passes out and the mugger flees]
- Frank Ochoa: We want you to get out of New York... permanently.
- Paul Kersey: [pause] Inspector... By sundown?
- Ames Jainchill: You're probably one of them knee-jerk liberals thinks us gun boys will shoot our guns because it's an extension of our penises.
- Paul Kersey: Never thought about it that way. It could be true.
- Ames Jainchill: Well, maybe it is, but this is gun country.
- Sam Kreutzer: [Paul and Sam listen to a police statement on the news] I'll bet muggings are down. They're afraid to tell us.
- Paul Kersey: There's only one way to find out. Take a walk on Columbus Avenue tonight.
- Sam Kreutzer: Thanks a lot, Paul. I think I'll wait for the official report.
- Jack Toby: We gotta let the cops handle this, Dad!
- Paul Kersey: Yeah?
- [squint]
- Paul Kersey: Well, what if the cops can't handle this, Jack?
- Paul Kersey: Is... any chance of catching these men?
- Lt. Briggs: There's a chance, sure.
- Paul Kersey: Just a chance?
- Lt. Briggs: I'd be less than honest if I gave you more hope, Mr. Kersey. In the city, that's the way it is.
- Sam Kreutzer: [Sam complains about the crime situation in the city] You know, decent people are going to have to work here and live somewhere else.
- Paul Kersey: By "decent people," you mean people who can afford to live somewhere else.
- Sam Kreutzer: Oh Christ, you are such a bleeding-heart liberal, Paul.
- Paul Kersey: My heart bleeds a little for the underprivileged, yes.
- Sam Kreutzer: The underprivileged are beating our goddamned brains out. You know what I say? Stick them in concentration camps, that's what I say.
- Paul Kersey: You've got a prime figure. You really have, you know.
- Joanna Kersey: That's a euphemism for fat.