Caspar: It�s gettin� so a businessman can�t expect no return from a fixed fight. Now, if you can�t trust a fix, what can you trust?

Leo: So you wanna kill him.
Dane: For starters.

Leo: You pay off for protection, just like everyone else. Far as I know - and what I don�t know in this town ain�t worth knowin� - the cops haven�t closed any of your dives and the D.A. hasn�t touched any of your rackets. You haven�t bought any license to kill bookies and today I ain�t sellin� any. So take your flunky and dangle.

Tony: Wake up, Tommy.
Tom: I am awake.
Tony: Your eyes were shut.
Tom: Who're you gonna believe?.

Tom: ...She sees the angle - which is you - and she plays it. She's a grifter, just like her brother. They probably had grifter parents and grifter grandparents and someday they'll each spawn little grifter kids.

Verna: Who was that?
Tom: Leo...He's looking for you.
Verna: Did you tell him I was here?
Tom: No.
Verna: Did you put in a good word for my brother?
Tom: No.
Verna: You said you would.
Tom: I said I'd think about it.
Verna: What did you tell him?
Tom: ...Did you see Rug Daniels last night?
Verna: No. What did you tell Leo?
Tom: I told him you were a tramp and he should dump you.

LADIE'S LOUNGE-
Tom: Close your eyes, ladies, I'm coming through.

Verna: Leo's got the right idea. I like him, he's honest and he's got a heart.
Tom: Then it's true what they say. Opposites attract.
Verna: Do me a favor and mind your own business.
Tom: This is my business. Intimidating helpless women is part of what I do.

Tom: Leo gets your sister; what're you selling me?
Bernie: C'mon Tom, it's not like that at all. Wasn't my idea, she'll sleep with anyone, you know that. She's even tried to teach me a thing or two about bed artistry. Can you believe that - my own sister! Some crackpot idea about saving me from my friends...She's a sick twist all right.
Tom: She speaks highly of you.
Bernie: Yeah, well you stick by your family.

Leo: 'Lo, Tom. You know O'Gar and the mayor.
Tom: I ought to. I voted for him six times last May.
Mayor Levander: (chuckles) And that ain't the record, either.

Leo: Hear about Rug?
Tom: Yeah, R.I.P.
Leo: They took his hair, Tommy. Jesus that's strange. Why would they do that?
Tom: Maybe it was Injuns.

Tom: (before taking a swig from a bottle of alchohol) To Volstead...Any news on Rug?
O'Doole: Still dead, far as I know.

Verna: That's not why you came either.
Tom: Tell me why I came.
Verna: The oldest reason there is.
Tom: There are friendlier places to drink.

(Verna smiles)
Verna:...Maybe that's why I like you, Tom. I've never met anyone made being a sonofabitch such a point of pride.

Tom: ...You don't hold elected office in this town. You run it because people think you run it. Once they stop thinking it, you stop running it.

Caspar: (after smacking Johnny Jr. upside the head, for interupting his and Tom's conversation)..Kids. Ya gotta be firm....What's a matter, somebody hit you, what's a matter, we ain't friends anymore?

NOT IN FILM
Bert: (after convinced, by Tom, NOT to kill a man) Ah, what the hell...If we can't trust a dago, the whole thing's hopeless anyway.

NOT IN FILM
Terry: In the first place, I don't know what you're talking about. In the second place, if I had been aiming at you I'd've hit you. In the third place, I don't know what you're talking about in the first place.

Tom: I don't hate anyone.
Verna: Or like anyone.
Tom: Whatever...

Tic Tac: ...Your first shot puts him down, then you put one in his brain. Then he's dead, then we go home.

Dane: ...Where is Leo?
Man: If I tell you, how do I know you won't kill me?
Dane: Because if you told me and I killed you and you were lying, then I wouldn't get to kill you then. Where's Leo?

Bernie: Don't smart me. See, I wanna watch you squirm. I wanna see you sweat a little. And when you smart me, it ruins it.

Dane: How'd you get the fat lip?
Tom: Old war wound. Acts up around morons.
Dane: Very smart. What were you doing at the Club? Talking things over with Leo?
Tom: Don't think so hard, Eddie, you might sprain something.
Dane: You're so goddamn smart. Except you ain't. I get you, smart guy, I know what you are. Straight as a corkscrew, Mr. Indside-Outsky. Like a goddamn bolshevik, picking up your orders from Yegg Central. You think you're so goddamn smart. You joined up with Caspar. You bumped Bernie Bernbaum. Up is down. Black is white. Well, I think you're half-smart. I think you were straight with your frail and queer with Johnny Caspar. And I think you'd sooner join a Ladie's League than gun a guy down.

Dane: Hey, Tic-Tac, ever notice how the snappy dialogue dries up, once a guy starts soiling his union suit?

Tom: ...If you want me to keep my mouth shut, it'll cost you some dough...I figure a thousand bucks is reasonable. So I want two thousand.