Quotes

Dialogue

Charlie: It's quiet. Eddie: Yeah, like a church. Church of the Good Hustler. Charlie: It looks more like a morgue to me. Those tables are the slabs they lay the stiffs on. Eddie: I'll be alive when I get out, Charlie.

Dialogue

Eddie: Well, you don't leave much when you miss, do ya, Fat Man? Minnesota Fats: That's what the game's all about.

Dialogue

Charlie: The pool game is over. Eddie: The pool game is over when Fats says it's over... I came after him and I'm gonna get him. I'm goin' with him all the way. The pool game is not over until Minnesota Fats says it's over. Is it over, Fats? [to Gordon] I'm gonna beat him, Mister. I beat him all night and I'm gonna beat him all day. I'm, I'm the best you ever seen, Fats. I'm the best there is. Now even if you beat me, I'm still the best. Gordon: [to Fats] Stay with this kid. He's a loser.

Dialogue

Gordon: I don't think there's a pool player alive who shoots better pool than I saw you shoot the other night at Ames. You got talent. Eddie: So I got talent? So what beat me? Gordon: Character. Eddie: Sure, sure. Gordon: You're damn right I'm sure. Everybody's got talent. I got talent. You think you can play big-money straight pool or poker for forty straight hours on nothing but talent? You think they call Minnesota Fats the best in the country just 'cause he got talent? Nah, Minnesota Fats's got more character in one finger than you got in your whole skinny body. Eddie: I got drunk. Gordon: He drank as much whiskey as you do. Eddie: Maybe he knows how to drink. Gordon: You bet he knows how. You think that's a talent too, huh, knowin' how to drink whiskey? You think Minnesota Fats was born knowin' how to drink? Eddie: Okay, okay, what do I do now? Lie down on the floor and, uh, bow from the ankles? What do I do, go home? Gordon: That's your problem. Eddie: So I stay. I stay until I h

Dialogue

Gordon: Eddie, you're a born loser. Eddie: What's that supposed to mean? Gordon: First time in ten years I ever saw Minnesota Fats hooked, really hooked. But you let him off. Eddie: I told you, I got drunk. Gordon: Sure you got drunk, the best excuse in the world for losin.' No trouble losin' when you got a good excuse. And winning — that can be heavy on your back too, like a monkey. Drop that load too when you got an excuse. All you gotta do is learn to feel sorry for yourself. That's one of the best indoor sports, feelin' sorry for yourself. A sport enjoyed by all — especially the born loser.

Dialogue

Sarah: I love you. Eddie: Do you need the words? Sarah: Yes, I need them very much. If you ever say them, I'll never let you take them back.

Dialogue

Eddie: We really stuck the knife in her, didn't we, Bert? Gordon: Ah! Eddie: Boy, we really gave it to her good. Gordon: If it didn't happen in Louisville, it'd happen someplace else. If it didn't happen now, it'd happen six months from now. That's the kind of a dame she was. Eddie: Then we twisted it, didn't we, Bert? Of course, maybe that doesn't stick in your throat, 'cause you spit it out just the way you spit out everything else. But it sticks in mine. I loved her, Bert. I traded her in on a pool game. But that wouldn't mean anything to you because who did you ever care about. "Just win, win!" you said. "Win, that's the important thing." You don't know what winning is, Bert. You're a loser, 'cause you're dead inside and ya can't live unless you make everything dead around ya! Too high, Bert — the price is too high. If I take it, she never lived, she never died. And we both know that's not true, Bert, don't we, huh? She lived, she died. Boy, you better, you tell your boys they bett