Paulie Cicero quotes from Goodfellas (1990)

Paulie Cicero

You broke your cherry!

Paulie Cicero

You think you're the only one? I talk to them a million times. They don't listen. What could I do? If there was something I could do, don't you think I would do it? Tommy's a bad kid. He's a bad seed. What am I supposed to do, shoot him?

Paulie

You know anything about this **** restaurant business?

Sonny

He knows everything about it. I mean he's in the joint 24 hours a day. I mean another **** few minutes he could be a stool that's how often he's in there.

Paulie

I don't want any more of that shit.

Henry

What shit? What are you talking about?

Paulie

Just stay away from the garbage, you know what I mean.

Henry

Look, Paulie?

Paulie

I'm not talking about what you did inside, you did what you had to do. I'm talking about now, from now, here and now.

Henry

Paulie, why would I want to get into that?

Paulie

Don't make a jerk out of me, just don't do it. Just don't do it. Now I want to talk to you about Jimmy, you have to watch out for him. He's a good earner but he's wild, takes too many chances.

Henry

Yeah I know that, I know Jimmy, you think I would take chances like Jimmy?

Paulie

And Tommy he's a good kid too. But he's crazy, he's a cowboy, he's got too much to prove. You gotta watch out for kids like this.

Henry

Yeah I know what they are, I only use them for certain things, believe me you don't have to worry.

Paulie

Listen, I ain't gonna get **** like Gribbs, understand. Gribbs is 70 years old and the ****in guy's gonna die in prison, I don't need that. So I'm warning everybody, everybody. It could be my son, it could be anybody. Gribbs got 20 years just for saying hello to some **** who was sneaking behind his back selling junk, I don't need that, ain't gonna happen to me, you understand?

Henry

Uh huh.

Paulie

You know that you're only out early because I got you a job. I don't need this heat, understand that.

Henry

Uh huh.

Paulie

And you see anybody **** around with this shit you're going to tell me, right?

Henry

Yeah.

Paulie

That means anybody!

Henry

Alright.

Paulie

Yeah?

Henry

Yeah, of course.

Jimmy

Congratulations, here's your graduation present [Puts money in Henry's pocket]

Henry

For what? I got pinched.

Jimmy

Hey, everybody gets pinched, but you did it right. You told 'em nothing and they got nothing.

Henry

I thought you'd be mad.

Jimmy

I'm not mad, I'm proud of ya. You took your first pinch like a man, and you learned the two most important things in life. You listenin'? Never rat on your friends, and ALWAYS keep your mouth shut. [Gives Henry an affectionate light slap on the cheek and leads him out of the courtroom. Outside, Paulie and many of the other gangsters are waiting for him.]

Paulie

Hey, you broke yer cherry! [The other gangsters cheer and congratulate Henry]

Paulie

Karen came to the house. She's very upset. This is no good; you gotta straighten this out.

Jimmy

We gotta have calm now, ya understand? We don't know what the hell she's gonna do. She's getting all hysterical, she gets very excited.

Paulie

She's wild. And you, you gotta take it easy, you got children. I'm not saying go back to her this minute, but you got to go back. It's the only way. You got to keep up appearances.

Jimmy

I got the two of them come to my house every day commiserating, the two of them. I can't have it. I can't have it. I can't do it, Henry. I can't do it.

Paulie

Nobody says you can't do what you want to do.

Jimmy

Do what you wanna do, we all know that. I mean, this is what it is. Ok? You know what it is. You have to do the right thing, you have to go home to the family. Understand? You gotta go home. Ok? Look at me. You gotta go home. Smarten up. All right?

Paulie

All right. I'm gonna talk to Karen. I'll straighten this thing out. I know just what to say to her. I'm gonna tell her you're going back to her and everything's gonna be just the way it was when you were first married, it's gonna be romance, it's gonna be beautiful. I know how to talk to her, especially to her. In the meantime, Jimmy and Tommy are going to Tampa this weekend to pick up something for me. Instead you go with Jimmy.

Jimmy

Yeah, you come with me. We'll go down there. Ok?

Paulie

Have a good time, take some time for yourself, relax, sit in the sun, take a couple of days off. Enjoy yourselves. And when you come back, you'll go back to Karen. Please. There's no other way. You're not gonna get a divorce. We're not animale.

Jimmy

She'll never divorce him. She'll kill him, but not divorce him. [they laugh]

Henry

In prison, dinner was always a big thing. We had a pasta course and then we had a meat or a fish. Paulie did the prep work, he was doing a year for contempt and he had this wonderful system for doing the garlic. He used a razor and used to slice it so thin that it used to liquify in the pan with just a little oil. It was a very good system. Vinny was in charge of the tomato sauce. I felt he used too many onions but it was still a very good sauce.

Paulie

Vinny? Don’t put too many onions in the sauce.

I didn’t put too much onions, Paul. Three small onions that’s all I did, three onions.

How many cans of tomatoes did you put in there?

I put two cans! Two big cans.

You don’t need three onions.

Henry

Johnny Dio did the meat. We didn’t have a broiler so Johnny did everything in pans. And it used to smell up the joint something awful and the hacks used to die, but he still cooked a great steak.

Vinny? How do you like yours?

Rare. Medium rare.

Medium rare, hmm, an aristocrat.

Henry

See, you know, when you think of prison you get pictures in your mind of all those old movies with rows and rows of guys behind bars but it wasn’t like that for wise guys. It really wasn’t that bad. Except that I’d miss Jimmy. He was doing his time in Atlanta. I mean, everybody else in the joint was doing real time all mixed together living like pigs but we lived alone. I mean, we owned the joint. Even the hacks we couldn’t bribe would never rat on the guys that we did. [Enters the room with a sack of contraband] Sorry it took so long, that skinny guard’s getting to be a real pain in the ass

Paulie

We’re gonna have to do something about that.

Henry

Naw, I took care of him.

Paulie

What did you bring?

Henry

Bread. [tosses a loaf of bread to Paulie]

Paulie

Good. Fresh.

Henry

Vinny, I got your peppers and onions. Salami, prosciutto, ‘lotta cheese.

Paulie

Come on, come on, what else?

Henry

Scotch. [holds up a bottle of Scotch]

Paulie

Nice.

Henry

Some red wine. [gives the bottle of red wine to Paulie]

Paulie

Ok, now we can eat.

Henry

I got some white too.

Paulie

Give me the white too. Beautiful. Ok, boys, let’s eat!

Henry's Children: Daddy! Oh, we missed you! Are you out here to stay? Did you see our pictures? I did the one with the house and the rainbow.

Henry

Karen, get packed, we're moving out of here.

Karen

With what?

Henry

Don't worry with what. You just start looking for a new house, ok? I gotta go to Pittsburgh in the morning. Those guys out there they owe me 15 grand. We'll be all right, I got things lined up.

Karen

Pittsburgh? You have to go see your parole officer tomorrow.

Henry

Karen, don't worry about it, everything's gonna be fine. Who wants to go to Uncle Paulie's?

Paulie

I do not want any more of that shit.

Henry

What shit? What are you talking about?

Paulie

Just stay away from the garbage, you know what I mean.

Henry

What-- Paulie..

Paulie

I'm not talking about what you did inside, you did what you had to do. I'm talking about now. From now. Here and now.

Henry

Paulie why would I want to get into that?

Paulie

Don't make a jerk outta me, just don't do it. Just don't do it. Now I wanna talk to you about Jimmy, you gotta watch out for him. He's a good earner but he's wild, takes too many chances.

Henry

I know Jimmy. You think I'd take chances like Jimmy?

Paulie

And Tommy, he's a good kid too but he's crazy, he's a cowboy, he's got too much to prove. You gotta watch out for kids like this.

Henry

Yeah, I know what they are. I only use them for certain things.

Paulie

Listen, I ain't gonna get **** like Gribbs, ya understand? The ****in' guy is 70 years old and he's gonna die in prison. I don't need that. So I’m warning everybody. Everybody. Could be my son, could be anybody. Gribbs got twenty years just for saying hello to some **** who was going behind his back selling junk. I don't need that. Ain't happening to me. You understand?

Henry

Uh-huh.

Paulie

You know that you're only out early 'cause I got you a job, right? I don't need this heat, understand that? You see anybody **** around with this shit you're gonna tell me, right?

Henry

Yeah.

Paulie

That means anybody. All right?

Henry

Yeah, of course.

Henry

It took me about a week of sneaking around before I could unload the Pittsburgh stuff, but when I did, it was a real score. I started using Sandy's place to mix the stuff and even with Sandy snorting more than she mixed, I could see that this was a really big business. I made $12,000 in my second week, I had a down payment on my house and things were really rolling. All I had to do every once-in-a-while was tell Sandy that I loved her. But it was perfect, I'm telling you. As long as I kept getting the stuff from Pittsburgh, I knew Paulie would never find out. Within a couple of weeks it got to be so big I needed some help. So I got Jimmy and Tommy to come in with me.

Henry

Paulie, I am really sorry. I don't know what else to say. I know I **** up.

Paulie

You **** up.

Henry

You know but I'm all right know. I can be trusted now, Paulie. I'm clean. On my kids, I'm clean.

Paulie

You looked me in the eye and you lied to me. You treated me like a ****in' jerk; like I was never nothing to you.

Henry

Paulie, after what you said, I couldn't come to you. You know, I--I was ashamed. I--I'm ashamed now. But I got nowhere else to go, Paulie. You're all I've got and I need really, really need you help. I really do.

Paulie

Take this.[pulls a wad of cash out of his pocket and hands it to Henry] Now I gotta turn my back on you.

Henry

3,200 bucks. That's what he gave me. 3,200 bucks for a lifetime. Wasn't even enough to pay for the coffin.