The Hustler quotes

View Quote Gordon: Fats went into the john, see, washed his face, cleaned his fingernails, made his mind a blank, combed his hair, came back all ready to go. You were through. You saw him, you saw how he looked, clean, all set to start all over again. Hold tight and push hard. And you know what you were doin'? You were waitin' to get beaten, flattened down on your butt, swimmin' around in glory and whiskey. You were probably decidin' how you can lose.
Sarah: What makes you know so much? How do you know what Eddie was thinking?
Gordon: I know. I've been there myself. We've all been there, haven't we, Miss Packard?...[To Eddie] How's your hand?
Eddie: Fine.
Gordon: Good. I'd hate to think I was puttin' my money on a cripple.
Eddie: Hey, what do ya say somethin' like that for?
Sarah: It's alright, Eddie. I'm sure Mr. Gordon meant no offense. It's a figure of speech.
Gordon: That's right, Miss Packard.
Sarah: A fact is a fact.
Gordon: Smart girl, Eddie.

View Quote Gordon: I want to talk to you.
Sarah: Do we need words?
Gordon: Yeah, I think we do. We could try to cut each other up, but that would be bad for everybody. Bad for me, bad for you. Worst of all, it would be bad for Eddie.
Sarah: You know what's good for him.
Gordon: To win.
Sarah: For whom and for what?
Gordon: For what makes the world go 'round. For money - and for glory.
Sarah: You didn't answer my first question. For whom?
Gordon: Today for me, tomorrow for himself.
Sarah: No, there's no tomorrow, not with you. You own all the tomorrows because you buy them today - and you buy cheap.
Gordon: Nobody has to sell.
Sarah: You bastard.
Gordon: Listen, Miss Lady Bird. You're here on a rain-check and I know it. You're hangin' on by your nails. You let that glory whistle blow loud and clear for Eddie, and you're a wreck on a railroad track. You're a horse that finished last. Now don't make trouble, Miss Lady Bird. Live and let live - while you can! [chuckling] I'll make it up to you.
Sarah: How?
Gordon: You tell me.

View Quote Eddie: I thought we came here to play pool.
Findlay: I don't play pool, Mr. Felson. I play billiards. My house, my game. You don't have to play if you don't want to.
Gordon: We won't.
Eddie: Come on Bert, let me play him.

View Quote Eddie: Please don't get off me now, Bert.
Gordon: I know when to quit and you don't. Win or lose, you don't know when to quit.
Eddie: [on his knees] What do ya want me to do, huh? What do ya want me to do? Just say it and you got it, but please don't get off me now.
Sarah: Don't beg him, Eddie.
Eddie: Go on back to the hotel.
Sarah: Please Eddie, don't beg him.
Eddie: Go on back to the hotel, take a cab. Go on back to the hotel.
Sarah: Doesn't all of this come through to you, Eddie? Doesn't any of this mean anything to you? That man, this place, the people. They wear masks, Eddie and underneath the masks they're perverted, twisted, crippled....
Eddie: Shut up!
Sarah: Don't wear a mask, Eddie. You don't have to. That's Turk, Eddie, the man who broke your thumbs. Well, he's not gonna break your thumbs. He'll break your heart, your guts, and for the same reason. He hates you because of what you are, cause of what you have and he hasn't.
Eddie: Would you get off my back, Sarah, once and for all, would you get out?! Would you get off my back?!
Gordon: Go ahead and play him, Eddie. Play him for a thousand dollars a game.

View Quote Gordon: He told me to give you some money.
Sarah: Put it on the bed. That's the way it's done, isn't it?
Gordon: That's the way it's done.
Sarah: And that way you are looking at me. Is that the way you look at a man you've just beaten? As if you've just taken his money and now you want his ... his pride?
Gordon: All I want's the money.
Sarah: Sure, sure, just the money. The aristocratic pleasure of seeing him fall apart. You're a Roman, Bert. You have to win more.
[He grabs her and kisses her]
Sarah: Is that a drink?

View Quote Eddie: That's my bank roll, my life's savings. Whatsa matter Fats? All you gotta do is beat me the first game and I'm on my way back to Oakland.
Minnesota Fats: Let's go.
Eddie: Get on me, Bert, I can't lose.

View Quote Eddie: How should I play that one, Bert? Play it safe? That's the way you always told me to play it, safe. Play the percentage. Well here we go, fast and loose. One ball, corner pocket. Yeah, percentage players die broke too, don't they, Bert? How can I lose? Twelve ball. How can I lose? Because you were right. It's not enough that ya just have talent. You gotta have character, too. Four ball. Yeah, I sure got character now. I picked it up in a hotel room in Louisville.
Minnesota Fats: Shoot pool, Fast Eddie.
Eddie: I'm shootin' pool, Fats. When I miss, you can shoot. Five ball. Fourteen ball. Twelve ball...

View Quote Gordon: Where do you think you're going? Eddie? You owe me money!
Eddie: Well, just how do ya figure that, Bert? Whaddya figure I owe ya?
Gordon: Half.
Eddie: In Louisville, it was seventy-five percent.
Gordon: Well, here it's half.
Eddie: What if I don't pay ya, Bert?
Gordon: [laughs] You don't pay me? You're gonna get your thumbs broken again. And your fingers. If I want 'em to, they're gonna break your right arm in three or four places.
Minnesota Fats: You better pay him, Eddie.
Eddie: So you figure you're still my manager, huh?
Gordon: I'm a businessman, kid.
Eddie: Well, you gotta lot of games lined up for me?
Gordon: Boy, we're gonna make a lotta money together from now on.
Eddie: Fifty percent?
Gordon: Nah, it don't have to be fifty. It'll be thirty or twenty-five.
Eddie: We really stuck the knife in her, didn't we, Bert?
Gordon: Ahh!
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 better kill me, Bert. They better go all the way with me, but if they just bust me up, I'll put all those pieces back together again, then so help me, so help me God, Bert, I'm gonna come back here and I'm gonna kill you. [Bert's thugs move toward Eddie]
Gordon: [Gordon gestures to his goons to back off.] All right. All right. Only, uh, don't ever walk into a big-time pool hall again.

View Quote Eddie: Fat Man, you shoot a great game of pool.
Minnesota Fats: So do you, Fast Eddie.