-
Johnny Boy: What's the matter, you too good for this ten dollars? Huh? You too good for it? It's a good ten dollars. Know somethin' Mikey? You make me laugh. You know that?
-
Johnny Boy: You too good for this ten dollars? It's a good ten dollars. You know Michael, you make me laugh. You see, I borrow money all over this neighborhood, left and right from everybody, I never pay them back. So, I can't borrow no money from nobody no more, right? So who would that leave me to borrow money from but you? I borrow money from you, because you're the only jerk-off around here who I can borrow money from without payin' back, right? You know, 'cause that's what you are, that's what I think of you: a jerk-off. You're a fucking jerk-off! You're laughing 'cause you're a jerk-off. I'll tell 'ya something else,
[lights ten dollar bill on fire]
Johnny Boy: I fuck you right where you breath, because I don't give two shits about you or nobody else.
[Michael jumps at Johnny Boy and they both fight but Charlie breaks them up, Johnny Boy pulls out a gun]
Johnny Boy: Come on... Come on... fuck face! Come on... 'ya motherfucker! Motherfucker!... come on! I got somethin' for 'ya asshole!
Michael Longo: You don't- you don't have the guts to use that.
Johnny Boy: Oh, I don't have the guts, huh? Come over here, I'll shove this up yer ass! Come on!
[Michael leaves]
Johnny Boy: Hey asshole, this is for you asshole! He's a fucking asshole!
[laughs]
-
Charlie: It's all bullshit except the pain. The pain of hell. The burn from a lighted match increased a million times. Infinite. Now, ya don't fuck around with the infinite. There's no way you do that. The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart... your soul, the spiritual side. And ya know... the worst of the two is the spiritual.
-
[They all raise their glasses to The Queen]
Charlie: You know what the Queen said? If I had balls, I'd be King.
-
Martin Scorsese: You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.
-
Johnny Boy: I fuck you right where you breathe.
-
[referring to his epileptic cousin Teresa]
Johnny Boy: I always wondered what happens when she comes. Does she have a fit?
-
Johnny Boy: Y'know Joey Clams...
Charlie: Yeah.
Johnny Boy: ...Joey Scala, yeah.
Charlie: I know him too, yeah.
Johnny Boy: ...yeah. No. No, Joey Scala is Joey Clams.
Charlie: Right.
Johnny Boy: Right.
Charlie: ...they're the same person!
Johnny Boy: Yeah!
Charlie: 'ey!
Johnny Boy: 'ey...
-
Johnny Boy: You see, I borrow money all over this neighborhood, left and right from every BODY, I never pay them back. So, I can't borrow no money from nobody no more, right? So, who would that leave me to borrow money from but you? I borrow money from you, because you're the only jerk-off around here who I can borrow money from without payin' back, right? You know, 'cause that's what you are, that's what I think of you: a jerk-off.
-
Johnny Boy: [Charlie hits him] You two-faced, dirty fucking bastard! Don't you ever hit me again!
-
Johnny Boy: Hey, sorry lady! I'm sorry! I hate that lady with a passion... with a vengeance.
-
Charlie: You know something? She is really good-lookin'. I gotta say that again. She is really good-lookin'. But she's black. You can see that real plain, right? Look, there isn't much of a difference anyway, is there. Well, is there?
-
Tony DeVienazo: Stay out of my place, I know your face!
-
Johnny Boy: Hey, why don't you lower the jukebox, I can't hear nothin'.
Joey 'Clams' Scala: Hey, the girls like the music loud.
Johnny Boy: Girls. You call those skanks girls?
Joey 'Clams' Scala: [to Charlie] Hey, what's a matter with this kid, huh?
Johnny Boy: Hey, there ain't nothin' wrong with me my friend, I'm feelin' fine.
Charlie: Keep your mouth shut.
Johnny Boy: You tell me that in front of this asshole?
Joey 'Clams' Scala: Alright, alright, we're not gonna pay. We're not paying.
Jimmy: But why? Joey, we just said we were gonna have a drink.
Joey 'Clams' Scala: [Joey interupts] We're not payin', because this guy, this guy's a fuckin' mook.
Jimmy: But I didn't say nothin'.
Joey 'Clams' Scala: And we don't pay mooks.
Jimmy: Mook? I'm a mook?
Joey 'Clams' Scala: Yeah
Jimmy: What's a mook?
Johnny Boy: A mook, what's a mook?
Tony DeVienazo: I don't know...
Johnny Boy: What's a mook?
Jimmy: You can't call me a mook!
Joey 'Clams' Scala: I can't?
Jimmy: No...
Joey 'Clams' Scala: [pause] I'll give you mook!
[punches Jimmy in the face]
-
Oscar: Look Charlie, you're a good boy. Will you just tell your uncle that I have nothing. There is nothing to give him. No envelopes with cash inside, no checks, nothing.
Charlie: That bad, huh?
Oscar: I can't make this week's payment and if this keeps up not next week's either.
Charlie: Not next week's either... listen... you tell that to Giovanni, not me.
Oscar: Listen, I should wrap up this place in a ribbon and hand it to him, you know that. I don't need this aggravation. I'm getting old.
Charlie: He'd rather have the loan payed, you know that.
-
Giovanni Cappa: This Johnny Boy is like your mister Groppi... a little crazy. It's nice you should help him out because of his family and our family but watch yourself... Don't spoil anything. His whole family has problems... his cousin, the girl who lives next door to you...
Charlie: Teresa.
Giovanni Cappa: ...The one who's sick, right? In the head.
Charlie: No, she's got epilepsy.
Giovanni Cappa: Yeah. That's what I said, sick in the head.
-
Michael Longo: [showing a picture of his new girlfriend] You think she's good-looking? She's smart, too. She's gonna be a teacher.
Tony DeVienazo: Let me see that. Oh, I know this girl.
Michael Longo: Yeah?
Tony DeVienazo: Yeah... I saw her kissing a nigger under a bridge.
Michael Longo: What? What do you mean?
Tony DeVienazo: A nigger. As in black. A nigger.
Michael Longo: But what do you mean?
Tony DeVienazo: [rolls his eyes] I mean... kissing. Her lips on his lips. Kissing.
Michael Longo: [worried] I kissed her.
-
[repeated line]
Charlie: What's the matter with you?
-
Giovanni Cappa: Honorable men go with honorable men.
-
Joey 'Clams' Scala: [the cops have broken up the fight, taken a bribe, and left the bar] This is the drink we never had before.
-
Charlie: Look... I'll give ya $20 to hold ya for now.
Michael Longo: What, are ya kidding? $20 doesn't pay the interest for 2 hours. Now, with a vig, it's almost $3000.
Charlie: $3000? Shit, you charge a guy from the neighborhood $1800 vig? One day he's late with his payments.
Michael Longo: Whatta ya think I am, his father?
-
Charlie: Alright. Okay. Thanks a lot, Lord. Thanks a lot for opening my eyes. We talk about penance and you see this through the door.
[Johnny Boy putting his pants back on at a Tony's joint]
Charlie: Well, we play by your rules, don't we. Well, don't we?
-
Johnny Boy: You don't know what happened to me. I'm so depressed about other things, I can't worry about payments. You know what I mean? I come home last Tuesday, I had my money, cash, blah blah bing bing, I'm comin' home, I ran into Jimmy Sparks. I owe Jimmy Sparks seven hundred, like for four months, I gotta pay they guy. He lives in my building. He hangs out across the street. I gotta pay the guy, right?
-
Johnny Boy: So, I was in there, playin' bankers and brokers, all of the sudden, I'm ahead like six-seven hundred dollars. I'm really winnin'. All the sudden some kid walks in and the kid yells that the bulls are comin', right. Now that the cops are comin', everybody runs away,.
-
Johnny Boy: I was so crazy, I wanted to kill this kid. Meanwhile, I gotta get back in the game, bing bing bing, I lose four hundred dollars!
-
Johnny Boy: Meanwhile, I lost the deal, I go outside, I'm a little depressed, now. Anyway, I wanna cut this story short, 'cause I know you don't wanna hear all this and, I know I know I know, but, I'm gonna - to make a long story short, anyway, I went to Hal Kaplan, gotta new tie and I got this shirt. Do you like this shirt? It's nice. This tie...
Charlie: Hey! Michael doesn't care if your depressed. What is he - your priest? What do go out shopping when you owe somebody money, Johnny. That ain't right.
-
Tony DeVienazo: Yo, keep away from those chinks. They don't have shit.
-
Michael Longo: We just stiffed a couple of kids.
Charlie: Ah, how much did you take 'em for?
Michael Longo: Twenty dollars.
Charlie: What are you laughin' at? Twenty dollars! Let's got to the movies!
-
Johnny Boy: Ah, it feels good. Hey, Charlie? The streets are empty. Thanks. Thank God. With that feast on, you can't even move in your own neighborhood. I hate that feast with a passion!
-
Charlie: How you been Joey?
Joey 'Clams' Scala: Not bad.
Charlie: You're lookin' good. Looks like you took off a couple of tons.
-
Joey 'Clams' Scala: [after paying a bribe] Everyday it's Christmas with these cops.
-
Tony DeVienazo: You want me to say it? You gotta be like me.
-
Johnny Boy: Your grandma's gonna die, right?
Charlie: Yeah, right.
Johnny Boy: Did you like her?
Johnny Boy: What do you mean do I like her? She's my grandma.
Johnny Boy: So what? That don't mean nothin'. So what?
Charlie: What's the matter with you?
Johnny Boy: What's a matter wit chu?
Charlie: Anyway, she ain't dead yet. God forbid. So, shut up.
-
Charlie: [naked in bed] Forget it. If there's any chance of me falling in love with you, Teresa, I wouldn't be here right now. Believe me.
Teresa: Because?
Charlie: Because with you I can't get involved.
Teresa: Because?
Charlie: Because you're a cunt! - Wait! It was only a joke.
Teresa: Where do you get off talkin' like that!
[gets out of bed]
Charlie: It was only a joke! Teresa, hey, come here.
Teresa: The hell it was!
-
Charlie: I hate the sun. Come on, let's go inside, will ya?
Teresa: What else do you hate?
Charlie: I hate the ocean and I hate the beach and I hate the sun and - the grass and the trees - and I hate heat!
Teresa: Charlie, what do you like?
Charlie: I like spaghetti and clam sauce, mountains, Francis of Assisi, chickens with lemon and garlic, John Wayne...
Teresa: You know, there aren't any mountains in Manhattan.
Charlie: Tall buildings are the same thing. And I like you.
-
Charlie: That's all that's important to me now.
Teresa: Right. Guys like my cousin Johnny.
Charlie: No, not exactly your cousin Johnny.
Teresa: Why I hope not because he is crazy! I mean he is driving me nuts! I don't know how you can be with him all the time. He's like an insane person!
Charlie: What is the matter with you? How can you talk to me about him? He's your own cousin.
Teresa: Oh, fuck him!
Charlie: That's terrible. Who's gonna help him if I don't? That's what's the matter. Nobody, nobody tries anymore.
Teresa: Tries what?
Charlie: Tries to - to help, that's all. To help people.
Teresa: You help yourself first.
Charlie: Bullshit, Teresa! That's where you're all wrong. Francis of Assisi had it all down. He knew!
Teresa: What are you talkin' about?
Charlie: He knew!
Teresa: What are you talkin' about? St. Francis didn't run numbers.
-
Giovanni Cappa: These politicians... Ball Breakers. All blackmailers... if they had to live honestly, they would starve to death. They are not like us. They know where to come when they need us. I realized this a long time ago during the World War II. Charlie Lackey was working for the government, taking care of the docks.
Charlie: What did he do?
Giovanni Cappa: What did he do? He was there. That's what he did.
-
Michael Longo: I swear to Jesus Christ on the goddamn cross, if that kid thinks he's makin' a jerk-off out of me, I'm gonna break his legs.
-
Michael Longo: What do I look like? A jerk? On his next payday, I'm comin' down here to Tony's. Johnny Boy better show or I'm gonna find him and I'm gonna break his fuckin' legs. Do we understand each other?
Charlie: I heard you.
Michael Longo: Good.
-
Charlie: Don't be smart, Johnny.
Johnny Boy: What do you mean? I ain't smart. I'm stupid. Remember? I'm so stupid you gotta look out for me. Right? Right?
-
Johnny Boy: Y'know Joey Clams...
Michael Longo: Yeah.
Johnny Boy: ...Joey Scallops, yeah.
Michael Longo: I know him too, yeah.
Johnny Boy: ...yeah. No. No, Joey Scallops is Joey Clams.
Michael Longo: Right.
Johnny Boy: Right.
Michael Longo: ...they're the same person!
Johnny Boy: Yeah!
Michael Longo: 'ey!
Johnny Boy: 'ey...
Mean Streets Quotes
Extended Reading
Director: Martin Scorsese
Language: English,Italian,German Release date: October 14, 1973