Life Quotes

Radio: Hey, New York, you ever been to that there Cotton Club?

Rayford Gibson: The Cotton Club in Manhattan? Many times, man, I damn near lived in the Cotton Club. I tell you, the Cotton Club is all right. But it ain't got nothin' on The Boom Boom Room. If you ever go to New York, go to Ray's Boom Boom Room

Willie Long: Hey there, Ray! What's that you talkin' about, the Boom-Boom Room?

Rayford Gibson: That's my spot, Ray's Boom-Boom Room, the most happening space in all of Manhattan.

Cookie: Ha ha, so you got your own nightclub?

Rayford Gibson: Well, right now it's kinda in the development stage, but I'm workin' on it, I'll get it.

Goldmouth: So it don't exist.

Rayford Gibson: It exists in my mind, Goldmouth; that's where it starts. It starts in your brain first. You know, it got to exist up here first. "As a man think it, so then shall he get", you know, some shit like that. You know you read the Bible.

[the truth comes out]

Dexter Wilkins: [on learning Pike framed Ray Gibson and Claude Banks] Is there any truth in what this man said?

Older Sheriff Pike: What the hell difference does it make? At least the state of Mississippi got forty years of cheap labor out of the deal!

Claude Banks: Motherfucker, you took our lives! Gimme the gun, I'm gonna kill this motherfucker myself!

Young Sheriff Pike: My goodness, my old friend, Winston Hancock. I thought we agreed that you was gonna leave town.

Winston Hancock: Well, I was going to leave, Sheriff Pike... but your wife, she begged me to stay.

Dexter Wilkins: You've been on this farm for quite a spell, haven't you?

Claude Banks: Over 40 years now, me and Ray Gibson over there.

Dexter Wilkins: 40 years... that's a long time for any crime, even murder.

Claude Banks: It's a hell of a lot longer when you're innocent.

Dexter Wilkins: Half the men in this prison swear they're innocent, Claude. Don't you think that's kind of funny?

Claude Banks: Well, you have to forgive me if I don't laugh.

Goldmouth: Hey, girl! You gon' eat yo' cornbread?

Claude Banks: You talkin' to *me*?

Rayford Gibson: Yeah, I think he's talkin' to you.

Rayford Gibson: Uh, no. Not at all; I want you to have it. Uh, Willie, you mind passin' this down to...

Rayford Gibson: Hey, no, don't pass your cornbread to him. That's your cornbread.

Claude Banks: Ray, I'm a grown man, okay, I'm not gonna eat this cornbread, if he wants the cornbread, damn it, have the cornbread!

Rayford Gibson: No no, if he wants some cornbread, let him go up to the front and get his own portion of cornbread, that's your cornbread, fuck him.

[to Goldmouth]

Rayford Gibson: Hey, man he gonna eat his cornbread, all right? Fuck you.

Claude Banks: Ray, look, I don't need you to take up for me, I'm all right, I'm a grown man, I can handle this.

Rayford Gibson: If you let have your cornbread, you're gonna be ironin' hisdrawers and clippin' his toenails.

Goldmouth: Maybe I oughta eat *your* cornbread.

Rayford Gibson: Motherfucker, you can't have my cornbread. That's for damn sure. Cause if you try and take my cornbread, Part 2 of my killing spree is gon' begin up in here on your ass, right now. You thinking about my cornbread, better get the taste out your mouth. That's for damn sure.

Claude Banks: Ray, chill out...

Rayford Gibson: No, fuck him. Fuck that, 'cause I'm from New York City, goddammit. Nobody take no cornbread from me. That goes for anyone of you motherfucking farmers who wanna start some shit. You fuck around with me, there's gonna be consequences and repercussions.

Jake: [hearing the story told, they hear that Mr. Wilkins was about to offer Ray and Claude pardons] So Ray and Claude get their pardons, right?

Leon: No, they didn't get their pardons, man! If they got their pardons way back then, we wouldn't be burying them here today, would we?

Jake: Oh, yeah, that's right.

Willie Long: What happened is old man Wilkins never come out of the bathroom! Sit right there and died on the shitter!

Claude Banks: [Ray and Claude have just found Winston Hancock's recently murdered body] I think he's hurt pretty bad, man!

Rayford Gibson: [feels Winston's head for signs] This guy's dead.

Claude Banks: I ain't, I ain't never seen no dead body before, Ray.

[Ray is now searching through Winston's pockets]

Claude Banks: What are you doin'? The man's been dead two seconds and you're in his pockets? Don't you have any respect?

Rayford Gibson: It ain't here!

Claude Banks: What ain't there?

Rayford Gibson: My daddy's watch, this is the guy that took my watch from. Motherfucker, you did fucked around with the wrong person, didn't you, didn't you? Now look at your ass bleedin'!

Claude Banks: [Claude has just been punished for crossing the gun line and Ray shares the punishment, but he chuckles to himself] What' you laughin' about, Ray?

Rayford Gibson: Ah, just thinkin' about you runnin' with them bullets flying all over the top of your head, that's something to see there, that was a sight to see.

Claude Banks: The bullets weren't the problem, ray. The pie was too hot! Burned my damn tongue.

Claude Banks: Don't touch this car.

Rayford Gibson: 'Cause I piss on the motherfucker. I ain't gonna touch it, I piss on it.

Claude Banks: Why you got to say nasty shit, Ray?

Rayford Gibson: 'Cause I'm a nasty motherfucker.

Rayford Gibson: [after being denied pie] Look, My Name's Ray Gibson I'm from New York. Let's talk Turkey, How much will it cost for you turn two of those whites-only pies into two nigger pies

Billy's Mama: [cocks gun] How 'bout I turn y'all into Nigger pie?

Pokerface: [on a break; Ray and Claude have just come in] Either one of you new fellas know how to read?

Rayford Gibson: I know how to read, why?

Pokerface: I've been carrying this letter for four months now

Claude Banks: You mean to tell me none of y'all can read?

Willie Long: Last fella what could read made parole about, what, Christmas.

Pokerface: [about his letter] I don't even know who this come from.

Rayford Gibson: [takes the letter] Gimme that shit.

[turns to old inmate sitting next to him]

Rayford Gibson: You can't read?

[old inmate replies "no"]

Rayford Gibson: Almost sixty years old; motherfucker can't read. Here: look, it's from, it's from your mama's neighbor, Mrs. Tadwell, you know who that is, Mrs. Tadwell; she thought you ought to know that your second cousin Bo died, Bo died, and your, and your other cousin Sally on your daddy's side, she died. Oh, and apparently your sister died, too.

Pokerface: Jenny?

Rayford Gibson: No, it said Marlene here, Marlene died

[reads on]

Rayford Gibson: ... no no no, Marlene, Jen-Jenny, Jenny died, too, Jenny and Marlene both dead. Then it goes on for a while about how the crop didn't come in on account of the frost, she finished up, there's been a big tornado in which your mama and your daddy were both killed, but don't worry because she's gonna take care of the dog, that is if he gets over the worms; dog had worms.

Pokerface: Appreciate it.

Rayford Gibson: Yeah, well you know, any time I can help.

Rayford Gibson: [Jangle Leg is dancing with a girl] Come on, now, forget that, man, she don't mean nothin' to him, don't pay that no mind.

Biscuit: To hell with him, it ain't that.

Rayford Gibson: So what's your problem, then? Sittin' here lookin' all sad and shit; it's almost all right in here to-day, almost.

[Biscuit hands him a letter]

Rayford Gibson: This is a release form, man, you gettin' off this month! What are you sittin' here lookin' all sad for?

Biscuit: What am I gonna do out there, Ray? I can't go home to my mama like this.

Rayford Gibson: Man, that shit you talkin' is crazy, your mama gonna be happy to see you when you get home.

Biscuit: Not like this, Ray.

Rayford Gibson: Hey, look, world done changed a lot; it's 1945, boy.

Biscuit: Not for me, it ain't.

Rayford Gibson: Look, you can't stay here, that's for damn sure, and I tell you what else, anybody else in this whole place would give his right arm to be in your shoes right now, I know I would.

Leon: [after Willie has told the story] You really bummed me out. That's a terrible story.

[to Jake]

Leon: Yo, nigga, you cryin'?

Jake: No, I just got allergies and - I'm cool.

[Leon walks off in disgust]

Willie Long: Hey, ain't nothin' wrong with a man cryin' every now and again.

Leon: Listen, man, what was Claude's plan, anyway?

Willie Long: See, Claude had figured he could steal a couple of bodies from the morgue, right? That way, when he set the infirmary on fire, in all the commotion, him and Ray could just slip right on into them fire engines, see, hide out, wait until the morning, and roll right out with 'em. That way, when they find the two bodies, they'd think it was them!

Jake: Well, what makes you think that didn't work?

Willie Long: I never said it didn't work.

Leon: Wait, you mean to tell me that this is not Ray and Claude in these two boxes?

[Willie chuckles inscrutably]

Jake: Well, is it, old man?

[Willie chortles on and wheels away]

Leon: Hey, old timer, is it?

Sergeant Dillard: Welcome to Mississippi. Here you will be provided with ample opportunity to repay your debt to society through the rigours of hard labour. We got fields need clearin', roads need buildin', and ditches need diggin'. You will eat only what you can grow. Your crop don't come in, you go hungry. This here is Camp 8; Camp 8 is for incorrigibles. So whatever you done to get here, believe me, I'm not impressed; I've seen it all before. We ain't go no fences here at Camp 8, we don't need no fences. We got us the gun line.

Hoppin' Bob: Tell 'em about the gun line, boss.

Sergeant Dillard: This is the gun line. It runs from shack to shack, clear around the yard. You are now inside the gun line. You step outside the gun line without my permission, you will be shot. You trip and fall over the gun, you will be shot. You spit, you pee, you so much as stick your johnson over the gun line, you will be shot.

[to Ray]

Sergeant Dillard: And you, Slick, don't try to run, don't try to run, don't try to escape, or one of my trustees will put a bullet in your head. You prisoners are now the property of the State of Mississippi, which is to say I own your ass.

Sergeant Dillard: [Claude won't dig, and complains that it's too hot] You tell that lazy jigaboo the State of Mississippi ain't interested in his meteorological assessments!

Hoppin' Bob: Listen up, jigaboo! State of Mississippi ain't interested in your, your, uh-"metacological assessments"!

Sergeant Dillard: You tell him the State of Mississippi is only interested in getting this here ditch cleared by sundown.

Hoppin' Bob: State of Mississippi wants this here ditch cleared by sundown. You got that, boy?

Claude Banks: You know what I'm going to buy with my first paycheck?

Daisy: What, baby?

Claude Banks: Season tickets to the Yankees. Right there on the first baseline.

[Daisy looks unhappy]

Claude Banks: What's wrong, baby?

Daisy: I was hoping you were going to say an engagement ring, Claude?

Claude Banks: An engagement ring?

Daisy: That's what respectable folks do: get a job, get married, start having babies. That's what you want, isn't it?

Rayford Gibson: [the two are now old men and Ray suspects Claude of having an escape plan] I'ma go to sleep. Why for I can't sit here and look at yo' ass... and wonder what you got up your sleeve?

Claude Banks: Yeah, I got somethin' brewin: I got a ass whuppin' brewin' for you here, Ray, if you don't stop fuckin' with me!

Claude Banks: You know, I'm finally starting to wrap my mind around this shit. We're in here for life. We're gonna die in here! We might as well go up to the cometary, picks out a plot and start digging.

Rayford Gibson: Now, you listen to me. My daddy died in a place just like this cause of that shit you're talking about. He gave up hope and he hung hisself! And I'm not going out like that!

Claude Banks: Well, maybe you're just a chip off the old block, Ray.

Rayford Gibson: You take that back or we're no longer friends.

Claude Banks: News flash, Ray! We ain't never been friends! We've just been stuck together for twelve years!

Claude Banks: You know what you probably just slow me down.

Rayford Gibson: How I'ma slow yo slow ass down!

[outtake]

Rayford Gibson: Hey, this ain't my daddy's watch!

Rayford Gibson: Now you're sure it was him?

Claude Banks: Some faces you just don't forget. Warren Pike is one of 'em.

[Claude is punished by standing on a crate of bottles]

Sergeant Dillard: You comfortable?

Claude Banks: As a pair of fur-lined bedroom slippers.

Sergeant Dillard: That's very amusin'. We'll see how them slippers feel after about 10 hours.

Sergeant Dillard: I need a volunteer! Gibson, stand up. I'll make you a trusty right now. If that pie-eatin' bastard step off them bottles, if so much as one toe hits that dirt, I want you to shoot him in his ass! I want you to kill him. I want you to shoot him dead. You do that, I swear to God, you're a free man. I'll walk you out the gate myself. What do you say?

[pause]

Rayford Gibson: I got to be honest with you, boss: you don't wanna give me that gun, 'cause I'd probably shoot you with it.

Sergeant Dillard: That was the wrong answer, boy.

[cut to Ray next to Claude on a crate]

Claude Banks: I hope your ass piss the bed with that weak-ass bladder of yours.

Rayford Gibson: If I do, then I'll put the sheets on you.

Sergeant Dillard: Gibson, Banks, get your sorry asses over here. Every mornin' I wake up prayin' that the two of you have died in their sleep, and every mornin' you disappoint me.

Rayford Gibson: Sorry, boss.

Sergeant Dillard: You two got 15 minutes to clear out your lockers. The both of you have been transferred to the superintendent's mansion. And l, for one, won't miss you.

[looks at them sadly for a moment, then leaves]

Willie Long: [narrating] Round about 1972, I got transferred to the infirmary and those two fools were still at it. But no matter how tough a man is, he spends enough time on this farm, he'll find his breaking point. It could be triggered by any little thing: a face, a voice, even a smell.

Claude Banks: White-only pies...

[last lines]

Claude Banks: It's a perfect plan. We're out.

Rayford Gibson: What's so perfect? Took 20 years to come up with it.

Claude Banks: Why can't you just say thank you?

Rayford Gibson: You want me to say thank you, you can kiss my ass too.

[outtake - Eddie's cellphone rings]

Rayford Gibson: [answers] Hello? Yeah, it's 1932, I'm the first to have one...