The Asphalt Jungle quotes

View Quote Experience has taught me never to trust a policeman. Just when you think one's all right, he turns legit.

View Quote One way or another, we all work for our vice.

View Quote Everything is here, from the observed routine of the personnel to the alarm system, the types of locks on the doors, the aging condition of the main safe, and so forth and so forth. Take my word for it, Mr. Emmerich, this is a ripe plum ready to fall...Perhaps you know my reputation. I've engineered some very big things.

View Quote They'll be paid off like house painters - they'll be told nothing about the size of the take. Sometimes, men get greedy.

View Quote Oh, I suppose a fellow should stick to his own trade, but uh, I know some pretty big men around here that might not be averse to a deal like this - if they're properly approached. Highly respectable men, I might add...It might mean a lot more money for all of us.

View Quote They'll listen to reason. This is a very bad jolt for them. And it's possible they'll be willing to buy the jewels back, no questions asked, for as high as twenty-five percent of what they're worth.

View Quote Put in hours and hours of planning. Figure everything down to the last detail. Then what? Burglar alarms start going off all over the place for no sensible reason. A gun fires of its own accord and a man is shot. And a broken down old cop, no good for anything but chasing kids, has to trip over us. Blind accident. What can you do against blind accidents? One thing I ought to have figured and didn't was Emmerich. I know why I didn't. I'm not kidding myself. It was the extra dough he promised. I got hungry. Greed made me blind.

View Quote I haven't carried a gun since my twenties. You carry a gun, you shoot a policeman. Bad rap, hard to beat. You don't carry a gun, you give up when they hold one on you.

View Quote Why don't you quit cryin' and get me some bourbon?

View Quote Are you a man, or what? Trying to gyp and double-cross with no guts for it. What's inside of you? What's keeping you alive?

View Quote It's not anything strange that there are corrupt officers in police departments. The dirt they're trying to clean up is bound to rub off on some of 'em but not all of 'em. Maybe one out of a hundred. The other ninety-nine are honest men trying to do an honest job....[One by one, he switches on police radios] We send police assistance to every one of those calls. Those are not just code numbers on a radio beam, they're cries for help. People are being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on twenty-four hours a day, every day in the year. And that's not exceptional, that's usual. It's the same in every city in the modern world. But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had [he flips off all four radios] - just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over. Think about it. Well gentlemen, three men are in jail, three men dead, one by his own hand. One man's a fugitive - we have reason to believe seriously wounded. That's six out of seven, not bad. And we'll get the last one too. In some ways, he's the most dangerous of them all, a hardened killer, a hooligan, a man without human feeling or human mercy.

View Quote Dr. Swanson: He hasn't got enough blood left in him to keep a chicken alive.

View Quote Cobby: Here's to the drink habit. It's the only one I got that don't get me into trouble.

View Quote Cobby: How can things go so wrong? How is it possible? One man killed, two others plugged. I'm out thirty grand. We got a load of rocks we can't even peddle...I must be awful stupid. Here I am with a good business, money rolling in, I-I gotta get mixed up in a thing like this. I ought to have my head examined.

View Quote Lt. Ditrich: [referring to Doc] He loses you five blocks from the depot and one of the most dangerous criminals alive is now at large in this city.