Minnesota Fats I quit, Eddie. I can't beat you...[To Gordon] You've got yourself a pool player.
Played by Jackie Gleason 
The Hustler (1961) · 60 quotes
The Hustler (1961) · 60 quotes
4th most-quoted character in The Hustler (1961): in 9 of its 60 quotes
Most scenes with: Eddie Felson (8)
Scenes with Minnesota Fats
9 scenes Minnesota Fats Minnesota Fats You shoot a good stick.
They say Minnesota Fats is the best in the country out where I come from...They say that old Fats just shoots the eyes right off them balls.
Minnesota Fats Big John? Do you think this boy is a hustler? [to Eddie] Do you like to gamble, Eddie? Gamble money on pool games?
Fats, let's you and I shoot a game of straight pool.
Minnesota Fats A hundred dollars.
Well, you shoot big-time pool, Fats. I mean, that's what everybody says, 'You shoot big-time pool.' Let's make it two hundred dollars a game.
Minnesota Fats Now I know why they call you 'Fast' Eddie. Eddie, you talk my kind of talk.
Didn't leave you much.
Minnesota Fats You left enough.
Well, you don't leave much when you miss, do ya Fat Man?
Minnesota Fats That's what the game's all about.
Minnesota Fats [After playing for 25 straight hours]
Fast Eddie, let's play some pool.
What are ya tryin' to do Eddie? Beat him? You beat him bad. Do you want to kill yourself?
What are ya, chicken, Charlie?
Yeah, maybe that's it, I'm chicken.
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.
Get on me, Bert, I can't lose.
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.
I'm shootin' pool, Fats. When I miss, you can shoot. Five ball. Fourteen ball. Twelve ball...
Where do you think you're going? Eddie? You owe me money!
Well, just how do ya figure that, Bert? Whaddya figure I owe ya?
Half.
In Louisville, it was seventy-five percent.
Well, here it's half.
What if I don't pay ya, Bert?
[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.
So you figure you're still my manager, huh?
I'm a businessman, kid.
Well, you gotta lot of games lined up for me?
Boy, we're gonna make a lotta money together from now on.
Fifty percent?
Nah, it don't have to be fifty. It'll be thirty or twenty-five.
We really stuck the knife in her, didn't we, Bert?
Ahh!
Boy, we really gave it to her good.
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.
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 gestures to his goons to back off.]
All right. All right. Only, uh, don't ever walk into a big-time pool hall again.
Fat Man, you shoot a great game of pool.
Minnesota Fats So do you, Fast Eddie.
