Billy Hayes quotes from Midnight Express (1978)

Billy Hayes

To the Turks, everything is "shurla burla", which means "like this, like that". You never know what will happen. All foreigners are "ayip", they're considered dirty. So is homosexuality, it's a big crime here, but most of them do it every chance they get. There are about thousand things that are "ayip", for instance, you can stab or shoot somebody below the waist but not above because that's intent to kill. So everyone runs around stabbing everyone else in the ass. That's what they call Turkish revenge. I know it must all sound crazy to you, but this place is crazy.

Billy Hayes

I just wish for once that you could be in my shoes, Mr. Prosecutor, and then you would know something that you don't know: mercy! That the concept of a society is based on the quality of that mercy; its sense of fair play; its sense of justice! But I guess that's like asking a bear to shit in the toilet. [In the red border clamshell VHS, He says: But I guess that's like asking a bear to use a potty trainer.]

Billy Hayes

For a nation of pigs, it sure is funny you don't eat'em! Jesus Christ forgave the bastards, but I can't! I hate! I hate you! I hate your nation! And I hate your people! And I **** your sons and daughters because they're pigs! [Red border clamshell VHS: And I hate your sons and daughters because they're pigs!] You're a pig! You're all pigs.

Billy Hayes

Dear Susan: Poor Jimmy was caught and beaten so badly he got a severe hernia, and lost a testicle. He's been in the sanitarium for months. In comparison, my problems seem very small.

Tex

Boy oh boy, you picked a bad time to fly, Billy. They're guerrillas all over the place blowing up planes and all. They hit four planes in four days. But I guess you young people don't read the news anymore. That, and with our people back home kicking up a shitstorm about the flow of heroin from Turkey...

Billy Hayes

I didn't have heroin. It was just a little hashish.

Tex

That doesn't matter. A drug's a drug.

Billy Hayes

It was only two kilos.

Tex

It doesn't matter if it was two kilos or 200 kilos. The Turks love catching foreigners. They want to show the rest of the world that they're fighting the drug trade.

Billy Hayes

Who are you? What's your name?

Tex

That's not important.

Billy Hayes

Are you with the American consulate here in Istanbul?

Tex

Something like that.

Tex

Do you have a family back home?

Billy Hayes

Yeah, a mother, father, sister and brother living in Babylon, Long Island.

Tex

It's gonna be tough for them. You'll have to tell them about what you're in sooner or later. Say, how much did you pay this joker? The cab driver for the hash you bought?

Billy Hayes

$200. It was my last 200.

Tex

How much did you expect to make if you had brought that stuff back to the USA?

Billy Hayes

I was only gonna share it or sell some of it to by friends. I'm not a pusher. Honest.

Tex

Yeah, right. Selling dope always beats working.

Tex

You got a girlfriend, Billy?

Billy Hayes

Yeah. She was on the plane.

Billy Hayes

She didn't know anything about it. I didn't want her to.

Tex

Lucky girl.

Billy Hayes

She used to say I was the lucky one.

Tex

Let's hope you're right, Billy. Let's hope you're right.

Billy Hayes

I'm Billy Hayes.

Jimmy

I'm Jimmy. Jimmy Booth. I'm an American just like you. This other guy here is Erich... something. I can't pronouce his last name. He's Swedish or something.

Erich

Just Erich.

Jimmy

Yeah... well, what do you think of this place, Billy?

Billy Hayes

Looks like some cheap rundown hotel.

Jimmy

Yeah, thought you'd say that. Everyone says that this place looks like a cheap hotel.

Billy Hayes

Peacocks. Why peacocks?

Jimmy

The Turks use 'em instead of dogs to patrol the fence because they shriek like hell when they're approached or disturbed. Plus, they don't get rabies.

Billy Hayes

Who are the kids?

Jimmy

Kids? They're not kids. They're local street urchins the Turks lock up here in a separate wing for the juveniles. Boys as young as nine or ten years old. They're thieves, drug dealers, muggers, con artists, pickpockets, rapists, murderers... you name it, they do it. Don't trust any of them!

Jimmy

So... Billy, what are you in for? Hash?

Billy Hayes

Yeah.

Jimmy

Where'd they get you?

Billy Hayes

The airport... trying to get home.

Jimmy

You go through customs?

Billy Hayes

Yeah, I was busted right at the plane.

Jimmy

Aw, man that's heavy. That's very heavy.

Erich

It's bad if they get you for smuggling, but if they make it possession, the sentence is lighter. The best thing for you to do, Billy, is try to make bail. If you make bail, you're free. You can easily get yourself a fake passport on the black market, or get yourself across the border into Greece.

Jimmy

Dream on, Erich. They'll never grant bail to foreigners whom may be a flight risk.

Erich

But if you argue in court about you being innocent...

Jimmy

This ain't the good ol' USA! This is Turkey, man! It's a ****in' accident here if you're innocent! There ain't nobody here that is innocent!

Billy Hayes

What's Jimmy's story? Why is he in here? Hash?

Erich

No. He was caught stealing from a mosque. That is also a heavy crime here in Turkey.

Billy Hayes

What did he steal?

Erich

Two candle sticks.

Billy Hayes

That's all?

Erich

That's all.

Billy Hayes

Why? Why would he do that?

Erich

Who knows? He's always been a wild child. He's got more balls then brains. Did you know that he was in here for a year-and-a-half before he told his parents what happened to him?

Billy Hayes

What about you? What are you in for?

Erich

Hashish. 90% of the foreigners here are in for hashish or drug related charges from smuggling to possession. My advice is you get yourself a very good lawyer and try to argue down the charge you face. If they make it possession, the sentence is lighter.

Billy Hayes

What were you convicted of?

Erich

Smuggling hash with the intent to sell.

Billy Hayes

What sentence did you receive?

Erich

12 years. I've been here for just over four years.

Billy Hayes

How much did you have on you?

Erich

100 grams.

With good time, Billy, it works to about, uh, 3 years, and then there's the appeal, and, uh, Daniels, and, uh, Yesil—they're all workin' for you. We're gonna try to get you transferred to a stateside prison. And Daniels thinks there might be a political amnesty any month now. All right. All right, Billy. I know it sounds tough, but we are going to get you out! I promise you. I don't want you to get stupid and pull anything. They can play with your sentence. All right. Now, I'm putting 500 dollars in the bank. Anything you need, you write. There's food here. There's candy. And there's...uh...writing paper. Books. Cigarettes. Soap. Toothbrush... [Empties bag onto table, slams it down] I've been writing insurance policies for 30 goddamn ["freaking" in the red border clamshell VHS] years and now I've got to see my own son - Jesus. JESUS!!! Billy, if I could be where you are... I'd be there.

Billy Hayes

I love you, Dad.

You take good care of my boy, you hear? Or I'll have your ****in' head, you Turkish bastard! [On the Red border clamshell VHS, he instead says: "You take good care of my boy, you hear? Or I'll have your freakin' head, you Turkish coward!"]

Max

The best thing to do is to get your ass ["butt" in the red border clamshell VHS] out of here. Best way that you can.

Billy Hayes

Yeah, but how?

Max

Catch the midnight express.

Billy Hayes

But what's that?

Max

Well it's not a train. It's a prison word for... escape. But it doesn't stop around here.

Jimmy

The second way out, I need you guys' help, and that's under.

Billy Hayes

You mean tunnel? Are you serious?

Max

This is Shagmahr prison, not Stalag 17.

Jimmy

Well that's where you're wrong ****face, 'cause it's already built!

Ahmet

Oh no. A bad machine doesn't know when he's a bad machine.

Billy Hayes

Oh, I know who I am. And I know who you are. I know that you are a bad machine. And do you know how I know that? [Ahmet shakes his head] Because I come from the factory. I MAKE the machines!