The first time you sell a gun is a lot like the first time you have sex. You have absolutely no idea what you're doing, but it is exciting...and one way or another it's over way too fast.
Yuri Orlov
Nicolas Cage · 66 quotes
Father Orlov
5 quotes
Agent Valentine
Ethan Hawke · 4 quotes
Simeon Weisz
Ian Holm · 4 quotes
Andre Baptiste Sr.
Eamonn Walker · 3 quotes
Pilot Alexei
3 quotes
Mother Orlov
2 quotes
Army helicopter mechanic
1 quote
Closing Titles
1 quote
Most scenes together: Yuri Orlov & Father Orlov (4), Yuri Orlov & Andre Baptiste Sr. (3), Yuri Orlov & Pilot Alexei (3)
Lord of War quotes
Page 5 of 6The next sabbath, I went to temple with my father. However, it wasn't God I was trying to get close to. My contact at synagogue landed my first Israeli-made Uzi submachine gun.
The problem with dating dream girls is that they have a tendency to become real.
The problem with gun runners going to war, is that there is no shortage of ammunition.
The problem with gun-runners going to war is that there's no shortage of ammunition. This was the chaos that the Old Guard had always feared. As far as they were concerned, I was giving arms dealers a bad name. But they could hardly report me to the Better Business Bureau. And Ukraine wasn't the only former state with an unpaid army and stockpiles of guns. There was Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Belarus all there for the taking. Of all the weapons in the vast Soviet arsenal nothing was more profitable than Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947, more commonly known as the AK-47, or Kalashnikov. It's the world's most popular assault rifle, a weapon all fighters love. An elegantly simple nine pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood. It doesn't break, jam, or overheat. It will shoot whether it's covered in mud or filled with sand. It's so easy even a child can use it, and they do. The Soviets put the gun on a coin, Mozambique put it on their flag. Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people's greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure: no one was lining up to buy their cars.
The reason I'll be released is the same reason you think I'll be convicted. I do rub shoulders with some of the most vile, sadistic men calling themselves leaders today. But some of these men are the enemies of your enemies. And while the biggest arms dealer in the world is your boss--the President of the United States, who ships more merchandise in a day than I do in a year--sometimes it's embarrassing to have his fingerprints on the guns. Sometimes he needs a freelancer like me to supply forces he can't be seen supplying. So. You call me evil, but unfortunately for you, I'm a necessary evil.
The second rule of gun-running is always ensure you have a foolproof way of getting paid, preferably in advance, preferably to an offshore account.
There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?
There are two tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want. The other is getting it.
There's no problem with living a double life. It's the triple and quadruple lives that get you in the end.
They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
Truce? What do you mean, truce? The guns are already on their way. Peace talks? All right, forget it. I'll reroute the shipment to the Balkans. When they say they're going to have a war, they keep their word!
What a cargo crew at Heathrow Airport does in a day took a bunch of malnourished Sierra Leonean locals ten minutes. By the time Agent Valentine got there, you could find more guns on a plane full of Quakers.
Where there's a will, there's a weapon.
While private gun-runners continue to thrive, the world's biggest arms suppliers are the U.S., U.K., Russia, France, and China. They are also the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.