Wiseguy Quotes
"Henry Hill did what seemed to him the only sensible thing to do: he decided to cease to exist."
"To me being a wiseguy was better than being president of the United States."
"If they were crossed, denied, offended, thwarted in any way, or even mildly annoyed, retribution was demanded, and violence was their answer."
"The only way to guarantee that I’m not going to get ripped off by anybody is to be established with a member, like Paulie."
"Wiseguys like Paulie have been paying off the cops for so many years that they have probably sent more cops’ kids to college than anyone else."
"I was only a street guy and even I was living good. I’m doing everything. I’m stealing and scheming with two hands."
"You think that politicians aren’t grateful? You think they don’t remember their friends?"
"I made a lot of grief for people. I was always in a brawl. I didn’t care."
"We’d throw away more money in a night than a convention of dentists and their wives could spend in a week."
"By then the guy knows it’s time to say it would be worth his while to get us off his back."
"And if he wants to bust it out, he can make even more money."
"Everyone I knew was into money schemes, and almost nobody ever got caught."
"Hustling and schemes took up every waking hour. They were the currency of all conversation and they fired the day’s excitement."
"He seemed a lot older than his age, and he seemed to know more than the other boys I’d been out with."
"I couldn’t stand him. I thought he was really obnoxious."
"I was at the cabstand when Paulie junior came running in."
"I couldn’t believe it. It was like a hit. She’s really steamed."
"He looked around. He couldn’t figure out what was going on."
"I knew Jimmy Burke was smuggling cigarettes, but even that didn’t seem like a crime."
"We didn’t need any lawyers. We shook hands and I was in the bookmaking business."
"Murder was the only way everybody stayed in line."
"Show me a bookmaker who bets and I’ll show you a guy owned by the sharks."
"Jimmy could look at you and smile and you’d think you were sitting with your best friend in the world. Meanwhile he’s got your grave dug."
"He could be incredible. He had a side that was so nice you wanted to bottle it."
"I remember looking down at the floor—it was wet red tile— and I could feel the damp come right up through the soles of my shoes."
"The prison was a marketplace. The gates would open up and it was a businessman’s dream."
"For almost two years Karen visited Henry in jail once a week."
"Henry was assigned to the far less onerous farm detail."
"Judy had begun to suffer from severe stomach cramps whenever they visited the prison."
"Ruth remembers long stretches of unrelieved boredom."
"The money owed to us by most of Henry’s friends from The Suite never got paid."
"I’ve read about how these guys take care of each other when they’re in jail, but I’ve never seen it in life."
"It must have cost him nearly $500 a week just to live inside the prison."
"We usually ate dinner there, and Henry used to call me long-distance every night."
"They knew their father was doing things that were wrong."
"At least my kids weren’t being raised to root for robbers."
"As much as I felt we were a part of the family—there was no money coming in."
"Once we got the stuff on the table inside, we were safe."
"A package of ginseng tea, a jar of shaving cream, and some after-shave lotion. For that she was trembling."
"Henry got assigned to the farm. It was a godsend."
"We had phone rooms next to the television rooms in each dorm."
"The place was filled with a nice class of people."
"He drove home in a six-year-old car, a four-door Buick sedan."
"Within twenty-four hours of his release Henry flew to Pittsburgh."
"Henry had been in prison and away from the street so long."
"But Henry was still in a maximum-security prison."
"On July 12, 1978, Henry Hill was granted an early parole."
"Lufthansa should have been the crew’s crowning achievement."
"Jimmy Burke was about to be released from Allenwood."
"Tommy DeSimone was also due to be released to the halfway house."
"The ultimate score for anyone who had ever hijacked a truck."
"There were about forty Jewish guys in the joint when I arrived."
"I was getting too old for sticking up trucks."
"I was snorting about a gram of coke a day just to keep all the insanity together."
"On the day I finally got arrested my friends and family were driving me crazy."