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Frank Lucas: The man I worked for, he had one of the biggest companies in New York City- he ran it for more than fifty years. Fifteen years, eight months, nine days- I was with him every day. I looked after him, took care of him, protected him... I learned from him. Bumpy was rich, but he wasn't white man rich, you see he wasn't wealthy. He didn't own his own company. He thought he did, but he didn't. He just managed it. White man owned it so they owned him. Nobody owns me, though. Because I own my company. And my company sells a product that's better than the competition at a price that's lower than the competition.
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[from trailer]
Frank Lucas: See, ya are what ya are in this world. That's either one of two things: Either you're somebody, or you ain't nobody.
-
Detective Richie Roberts: My investigation indicates that Frank Lucas is above the Mafia.
District Attorney: Who does he work for? Which family?
Detective Richie Roberts: He's not Italian, he's black.
District Attorney: No nigger has accomplished what the American Mafia hasn't in a hundred years!
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[repeated line]
Frank Lucas: My man.
-
Frank Lucas: Now, I got no problem with you showin' up in court tomorrow with your head blown in half.
Detective Richie Roberts: Get in line. That one stretches around the block too.
-
Frank Lucas: What is that you got on?
Huey Lucas: What? This?
Frank Lucas: Yeah, that.
Huey Lucas: This is a very, very, very nice suit.
Frank Lucas: That's a very, very, very nice suit, huh?
Huey Lucas: Yeah.
Frank Lucas: That's a clown suit. That's a costume, with a big sign on it that says "Arrest me". You understand? You're too loud, you're making too much noise. Listen to me, the loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.
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Detective Trupo: [after Detective Trupo finds Blue Magic in a small bag in the car] What are we gonna do about this?
Frank Lucas: We ain't gon' do shit about it. Close it up. Throw it back in the trunk. Everybody go home. Have some pumpin pie, warm apple cider...
Detective Trupo: I got a better idea, or would you rather me throw you and your brother in the fuckin' river?
Frank Lucas: Or, would you rather your house blows up next time?
-
[from trailer]
Frank Lucas: This is my home. My country. Frank Lucas don't run from nobody. This is America.
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Nephew: I don't wanna play baseball no more.
Frank Lucas: Well, what do you want?
Nephew: I want what you got Uncle Frank. I wanna be you.
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Detective Richie Roberts: The number one fear of people isn't dying, it's public speaking.
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[from trailer]
Detective Richie Roberts: Frank Lucas is the most dangerous man walking the streets of our city.
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Detective Richie Roberts: They don't want this to stop. It employs too many people. Cops, lawyers, judges, probation officers, prison guards... The day dope stops coming into this country, a hundred thousand people lose their jobs.
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[from trailer]
Frank Lucas: This is my home. This is where my business is, my wife, my mother, my family. This is my country, I ain't goin' nowhere.
-
[from trailer]
Detective Richie Roberts: I swear, I will pull out my gun and put a bullet in your fuckin' head!
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Frank Lucas: They tried to kill my Wife!
Frank Lucas: Who are they?... Huh?... Maybe it was one of your people?
Dominic Cattano: I don't know yet.
Frank Lucas: You don't know.
Dominic Cattano: No.
Frank Lucas: You don't know.
Frank Lucas: I tell you what I know maybe I should just uh, put five hundred guns out there on the street and just start shooting up some people just to make a point.
-
[from trailer]
Frank Lucas: I got Harlem. I took care of Harlem, so Harlem's gonna take care of me.
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Chinese General: It's not in my best interest to say this Frank, but quitting while you're ahead, is not the same as quitting.
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Detective Richie Roberts: Good work Frank. You... want a drink or something? Celebrate?
Frank Lucas: You got any holy water?
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Richie's Attorney: Oh! Richie fuck me like a cop not a lawyer. Ohhh.
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Eva: Why would you trust these people? And the way they look at you.
Frank Lucas: They look at me like it's Christmas and I'm Santa Claus.
Eva: They look at us like we're the help.
Frank Lucas: They work for me, now.
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Frank Lucas: What's with this outfit? You know what it says? You wanna know what it says? Arrest me!
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Frank Lucas: Simple Simon-ass motherfuckers!
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Frank Lucas: Ey, ey, ey, ey! Don't rub on that. You Blot that! Ya understand? That's Alpaca. That's $25,000 Alpaca! You blot that shit! You don't rub it, put the club soda on there.
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[repeated line]
Frank Lucas: 20 Percent.
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Frank Lucas: The most important thing in business is honesty, integrity, hardwork... family... never forgetting where we came from.
-
[Detective Trupo notices Richie's plans to arrest Frank Lucas]
Detective Trupo: What's this? Don't tell me you're actually gonna arrest Frank Lucas, are you?
Detective Richie Roberts: What? Haven't you heard? We're all fucking crazy over here. You know what we do here? Cops... arrest... bad guys. The next time you come across the bridge, you should call me first. Just make sure it's safe.
-
Mama Lucas: You don't shoot cops. Even I know that. Eva knows it. The only one who DOESN'T seem to know is you.
Frank Lucas: [ignores her pleas as he escorts her outside] All right, Mama. I'm not going to, I promise you. I'm not going to shoot anyone.
Mama Lucas: I never asked you where all this stuff came from, because I didn't want to hear you lie to me. Please...
Frank Lucas: [talking over her] Ma, I understand. I don't want you to worry about it. Now come on, I have to go...
Mama Lucas: Don't LIE to me!
[slaps Frank roughly]
Mama Lucas: Don't... don't do that. Do you want to make things so bad for your family that they'll leave you? Because they will.
Frank Lucas: [dismissively] No. No, Ma, I understand...
Mama Lucas: [points towards Eva] She will leave you. *I* will LEAVE you!
-
Detective Richie Roberts: What the fuck is a microwave?
-
Dominic Cattano: Success. It's got enemies. You can be successful and have enemies or you can be unsuccessful and have friends.
-
[first lines]
Bumpy Johnson: Happy Thanksgiving!
-
[last title cards]
Title cards: Frank Lucas was convicted of Conspiracy to Distribute Narcotics and sentenced to 70 years.
Title cards: Federal authorities confiscated over 250 million dollars of Frank's assets in U.S. and foreign banks.
Title cards: Frank and Richie's collaboration led to the conviction of three quarters of New York City's Drug Enforcement Agency.
Title cards: Thirty members of Frank's family were convicted of drug trafficking and sent to prison.
Title cards: Frank's wife returned to Puerto Rico.
Title cards: His mother moved back to North Carolina.
Title cards: Richie Roberts quit the Prosecutor's Office to become a defense attorney. His first client was Frank Lucas.
Title cards: For his cooperation, Frank's prison sentence was reduced to 15 years. He was released in 1991.
-
[last lines]
Prison Guard: Check your property. Sign, please.
-
Bumpy Johnson: This is the problem. This is what's wrong with America. It's gotten so big, you just can't find your way. The grocery store on the corner is now a supermarket. The candy store is a MacDonald's. And this place, a super fucking discount store. Where's the pride of ownership? Where's the personal service?
[Enters the store]
Bumpy Johnson: See what I mean? Shit. I mean, what right do they have, of cutting out the suppliers? Pushing out all the middlemen. Buying direct from the manufacturer. Sony this. Toshiba that. All them Chinks putting Americans out of work. That's the way it is now. You can't find the heart of anything to stick the knife.
-
Redtop: What's the matter? Ain't you niggas never seen naked coochie before?
Huey Lucas: Why they all naked?
Frank Lucas: So they can't steal nothin'.
-
Frank Lucas: I don't care what you call it, put a choke-hold on the motherfucker and call it Blue Dog Shit.
-
Detective Trupo: Did you pay your bills, Frank?
Frank Lucas: I don't know what you're talking about.
Detective Trupo: You pay your bills, I asked you?
Frank Lucas: Look, if you're not getting your share
Detective Trupo: [interupts] What's my share? Cause you don't even fuckin' know me. Maybe I'm special.
-
FBI Agent: If you want, we can assign someone to you?
Detective Richie Roberts: FBI protection? My life is dangerous enough as it is!
-
Detective Trupo: [Referring to Lucas] We need to keep this cash cow alive.
-
Frank Lucas: The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.
-
Rossi: More important than one man's life is order.
-
Frank Lucas: I sell a product that's better than the competition at a price that's less than the competition.
-
Dominic Cattano: What do you think of monopolies?
Frank Lucas: You mean like the game?
Dominic Cattano: Nah, I just think that monopolies are made illegal in the country, Frank, 'cause nobody wants to compete. Y'know? Nobody wants to compete. Not with a monopoly. I mean, you let the dairy farmers do that, right? They'd be out of business tomorrow.
Frank Lucas: Just tryin' to make a livin'.
Dominic Cattano: 'Course you are right. Everyone's right. It's America. We just can't do it at that unreasonable expense of others. Because then it becomes un-American. That's why the price we pay for that gallon of milk could never represent the true cost of production 'cause it's gotta be controlled, right? It's got to be set. It's gotta be fair.
Frank Lucas: Gotta be controlled by who? I set a price that I think is fair.
Dominic Cattano: I don't think it's fair.
Frank Lucas: You don't?
Dominic Cattano: I don't think it's fair.
Frank Lucas: I think it's fair.
Dominic Cattano: I know your customers are happy Frank. Bunch of fuckin' junkies that they are. What about your fellow dairy farmers out here, Frank? Are you thinkin' of us? You thinkin' of them?
Frank Lucas: Dairy farmers?
Dominic Cattano: Yeah.
Frank Lucas: I'm thinking of them, Dominic, about as much as they've ever thought about me.
Dominic Cattano: I'm just thinking out loud now. If you took some of your inventory, Frank, and you sold it wholesale, we could work. We could do some distribution.
Frank Lucas: I dunno. I'm pretty good, Dominic. Yannow, I've got 110th to 155th-river to river-I'm alright.
Dominic Cattano: Well that's kind of a mom and pop store next to what I'm talking about. I mean, let's go at least bigger than K-mart. I'm talking about L.A. Chicago. Detroit. Las Vegas. Let's go nation-wide. Yannow. I'm gonna guarantee you peace of mind here. You're gonna want that. You're gonna need it. I don't know how you view me. Y'know, I'm kinda a Renaissance Man, Frank. Y'know, people I deal with on a daily basis, t-t-they're not enlightened, Frank. You talk to them about Civil Rights, they don't know, y'know? They're not open to things. Not from the way things are done. And who's doin' it? I talk to them, there's just no misunderstandings. And that's what I mean. Buy you peace of mind. Yeah.
Frank Lucas: You're paying what? Seventy-five? Eighty thousand a kilo? I'm a Renaissance Man too. I'll consider fifty thousand.
-
Eva: You're Frank and this is your place?
Frank Lucas: That's right. I'm Frank and this is my place.
Eva: Why is it called Small's? Why don't you call it Frank's?
Frank Lucas: When you own something, you can call it what you want.
-
Detective Richie Roberts: Laurie, look, I'm sorry I never gave you the kind of life you wanted, all right.I'm sorry it was never enough.Don't punish me for being honest.Don't take my boy away.
Laurie Roberts: What are you saying? That because you were honest and you didn't take money like every other cop, I left you? No, you don't take money for one reason. To buy being dishonest about everything else. And that's worse than taking money nobody gives a shit about.Drug money, gambling money nobody's gonna miss. You know, I'd rather you took it and been honest with me. Or don't take it. I don't care. But then don't go cheat on me.Don't cheat on your kid by never being around. Don't go out and get laid by your snitches and your secretaries and strippers.I can tell by just looking,she's one of them. You think you're going to heaven because you're honest, but you're not You're going to the same hell as the crooked cops you can't stand.
-
Frank Lucas: My man. You know what normal is to me? I ain't see normal since I was 6 years old. Normal is seeing the police ride up to my house, dragging my 12 year old cousin out and tying him to a pole, shoving a shotgun in his mouth so hard they bust his teeth, then they bust two shotgun shells in his head, knocking it off. That's what normal is to me. Didn't give a fuck about no police then... Don't give a fuck about no police now.
-
Detective Richie Roberts: Bagels and blinches: they will catch up with you, you know?
-
Bumpy Johnson: [to Frank] A leader, like a shepherd, he sends his fastest nimble sheep, out front. And the others will follow. While the shepherd, he walk quietly behind... Now he's got the stick, and the cane, and he'll use it! If he has to. But most times he doesn't have to. He moves the whole herd quietly.
-
Moses Jones: I heard a story about you that you found a million dollars in unmarked cash and you gave that shit back, is that true?
-
Frank Lucas: I've been paying off Johnny law since I was ten years old I put more kids through college than the National Merit Award this is different though, these special investigative unit that's their problem they think their "special"
-
Detective Richie Roberts: I got possession, supply, conspiracy, bribing a law officer, I got your offshore bank accounts, your real estate, your businesses, all bought with money from heroin, I got hundreds of parents from dead kids, addicts who OD'ED and that's my story, that's how I make it all stick for the jury, this man murdered thousands of people and he did it from a penthouse driving a Lincoln, I got a line people wanting to testify against you that stretches out the door and around the block
-
Rossi: This is the French connection dope, cops seize it, arrest everyone then start taking it out of evidence room, whacking it down to nothing and selling back to us, they basically control the market, they've been doing this for years, they live off it
-
Frank Lucas: You want to be like Nicky? Be super fly? You want to work for him? Cook for him? Share a jail cell with him?
-
Detective Trupo: When was the last time I was in New Jersey? Let me think, never, what are you doing coming over here unannounced? You think you're going to get hurt doing that? you got your fucking money, never come into this city unannounced, you come to the city to see a fucking Broadway show, you call ahead first to see if it's ok with me
-
Frank Lucas: Let me ask you something. You think by putting me in jail, you're going to stop even one junkie from dying? Because you won't. If it isn't me, it'll be someone else. With me or without me, nothing's going to change.
Detective Richie Roberts: Then that's the way it is.
-
Detective Richie Roberts: This is the newly formed Essex County narcotics squad, our mandate is to make major arrests, no street guys, we're looking for the suppliers and distributors, Heroin, Cocaine, Amphetamines, no grass under a thousand pounds, no powder under forty kilograms, any less than that we're going to waste our time, we're going to handling the big shipments, the big money, the big temptation
-
Dominic Cattano: [Speculating who shot at Frank and his wife] Maybe it was a junkie, or it was a rival, some dumbass kid trying to make a name for himself, someone you forgot to pay off, someone you slide without realizing it, could be someone you put out of business for being so successful
-
Detective Richie Roberts: [Referring to Frank Lucas] His seats were phenomenal better seats than Dominic Cattano, Joe Louis shook his hand, who the fuck is this guy?
-
Detective Richie Roberts: His name is Frank Lucas, originally from Greensboro, North Carolina, he has a couple of arrests years ago for gambling and for carrying an unlicensed firearm. For fifteen years he was Bumpy Johnson's driver, bodyguard and collector. Hhe was with him when he died, he has five brothers, he's the oldest and a lot of cousins, they're all living up here now, spread out in the five boroughs and New Jersey. His brother's businesses are the distribution and collection points of Frank's dope and his money. Everything about Frank's life seems unpretentious and broadly legitimate, he starts early, gets up at 5am, has breakfast in a diner in Harlem usually by himself, then he starts work, takes a meeting with his accountant and with his lawyer. At nights he usually stays at home, if he does go out, it's only one of two clubs or a handful of restaurants with his wife, ball players, musicians and his friends and never organized crime guys. Sundays he takes his mother to church and changes the flowers on Bumpy's grave, every Sunday no matter what.
-
Detective Trupo: Your husband's illustrious career is over. Now the Feds are going to come in, they're gonna take everything. I mean they're gonna take it all. But not before I get my gratuity. So where's the money?
Eva: What are you talking about, what money?.
Detective Trupo: What am I talking about, what money? The getaway money that Frank and every other gangster keeps in his house!
Eva: If you leave now, there's a chance Frank might not kill you.
[Trupo hits her]
-
Detective Richie Roberts: I want to know everyone you've met for the last twenty years. Everyone you sold to. Every cop you ever paid off. Every one who ever stole from you. Every one you remember.
Frank Lucas: Oh, I remember them all. That's not the problem.
Detective Richie Roberts: What is?
Frank Lucas: The jails aren't big enough.
-
Chinese General: How would you get it into the States?
Frank Lucas: You ain't got to worry about that.
Chinese General: Who do you work for in there?
Frank Lucas: You ain't got to worry about that, either.
Chinese General: Who are you really?
Frank Lucas: It says right there, Frank Lucas.
Chinese General: I mean, who do you represent?
Frank Lucas: Me.
-
[last lines - extended cut]
[Frank observes some new-school gangstaz]
Frank Lucas: Even a fool gets to be young once.
-
Tango: What the fuck you gonna do Frank, huh? You gonna shoot me, in front of everybody? Huh? Come on...
[Frank shoots him]
-
Javier J. Rivera: I'm a leper. Because I listened to you and turned in a million fucking dollars. You know who'll work with me after that? Same as you. No one.
-
Rossi: They seize it, arrest everybody, whack it up and sell it back to us. Our dope. They been living off it for years, these New York cops. They basically control the market with it. What the fuck has happened to the world, Frank?
-
Dominic Cattano: I always wonder if people know when history's being made, and what they're doing at the time. This, for instance, could be a historic moment, and you're sipping a glass of ice water.
-
Javier J. Rivera: Cops... kill cops... they can't trust.
-
Rossi: Who can live like that? There has to be order. That would've never happened with Italians. More important than any one man's life... is order.
-
Frank Lucas: What you want me to do? Snitch? I know you don't want no cops. What you want? Gangsters? Pick one. Jew gangsters, mick gangsters, guinees? They been bleeding Harlem dry since they got off the boat. I don't give a fuck about no crime figures. You can have them.
Detective Richie Roberts: I'll take them too.
Frank Lucas: You'll take them too? No you didn't. You talkin about police? You want police? You want your own kind?
Detective Richie Roberts: They're not my kind. They're in business with you, they ain't my kind. They ain't my kind like the Italians are not yours.
-
Frank Lucas: Bumpy ain't hardly ever go out no more. After a certain point he stayed in the house. Watch TV. Play chess. Read the newspaper. I thought he was just trying to lead the quiet life, but no, he couldn't go nowhere. Not without something happening.
Eva: Frankie... We can still go out.
-
Frank Lucas: Bumpy Johnson may have been rich, but he wasn't white man rich. He wasn't wealthy.
-
Frank Lucas: You are what you are and that's one of two things. You're nothing... or you're something. Understand what I'm saying?
-
Tosca: You interested in history, Frank? The events today have brought us to where we are today? You know who was? Bumpy.
Frank Lucas: Bumpy was interested in a lot of things.
Tosca: I always wonder if people know when history's being made. And what they're doing at the time. This, for instance, could be a historic moment, and you're sipping a glass of water.
American Gangster Quotes
Extended Reading
Director: Ridley Scott
Language: English,Thai,Spanish Release date: November 2, 2007