The Hustler quotes

View Quote Sarah: What else have we got? We never talk about anything. We stay in this room and we drink and make love. We're strangers. What happens when the liquor and the money run out, Eddie? You told Charlie to lay down and die. Will you say that to me too? What happens, Eddie?
Eddie: Just buy yourself another rich old lover.
Sarah: That's right, and I'm sure you'll help me.
[Eddie viciously slaps her across the face.]
Sarah: You waiting for me to cry? You bum. You pool-room bum.

View Quote [to Eddie] We have a contract of depravity. All we have to do is pull the blinds down.

View Quote [explaining his pool cue case] This guy told me when I came to the big city, I'd have to have a machine gun, so I bought one.

View Quote How much am I gonna win tonight? Ten grand, I'm gonna win ten grand in one night. Well, who's gonna beat me?...I mean, what other pool room is there in the country where a guy can walk out with ten grand in one night

View Quote Maybe I'm not such a high-class piece of property right now. But that twenty-five percent slice of somethin' big is better than a hundred percent slice of nothin'.

View Quote Sarah: Where do you live?
Eddie: Around.
Sarah: I know where you live. In a locker in the bus station. What's it like living in a locker?
Eddie: Cramped. Do you always drink like this so early in the morning?

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

View Quote [to Eddie] Why me? [Without answering, he hungrily kisses her. She pushes him back.] Please, please, you're too hungry.

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 I'm a college girl, two days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I go to college...I'm the emancipated type, real emancipated...I've got nothing else to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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 [After discovering that Charlie held some money out on him] With that fifteen hundred, I could have beat him. That's all I needed Charlie...You'd love to keep me hustlin' for ya, huh, wouldn't ya? I mean, a couple more years with me scufflin' around, in them little towns and those back alleys, you might make yourself enough to get a little pool room back in Oakland - six tables and a handbook on the side...Lay down and die by yourself.

View Quote [to Eddie] ...you start drinking whiskey gambling - it gives you an excuse for losing. That's something you don't need, an excuse for losing.

View Quote Eddie: You know, someday Sarah, you're gonna settle down. You're gonna marry a college professor. You're gonna write a great book - maybe about me, huh? Fast Eddie Felson, Hustler.
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.

View Quote I'm gonna beat that Fat Man, with that curly hair and those diamond rings and that carnation.