American Gangster (film) Quotes

American Gangster (film) is a television program that was first aired in 1970 . American Gangster ended its run in 1970.

It features Ridley Scott, and Brian Grazer as producer, Marc Streitenfeld in charge of musical score, and Harris Savides as head of cinematography.

American Gangster (film) is recorded in English and originally aired in United States. Each episode of American Gangster (film) is 158 minutes long. American Gangster (film) is distributed by Universal Studios.

The cast includes: Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas, Armand Assante as Dominic Cattano, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Huey Lucas, Russell Crowe as Detective Richie Roberts, Carla Gugino as Laurie Roberts, Denzel Washington as Mama Lucas, Clarence Williams III as Bumpy Johnson, Lymari Nadal as Eva, Rza as Moses Jones, Melissa Hill as Redtop, Jon Polito as Rossi, Idris Elba as Tango, and John Ortiz as Javier J. Rivera.

American Gangster (film) Quotes

John Ortiz as Javier J. Rivera

• (John Ortiz) "I'm a leper. Because I listened to you and turned in a million f***ing dollars. You know who'll work with me after that? Same as you. No one."

Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas

• (Denzel Washington) "I sell a product that's better than the competition at a price that's less than the competition."

• (Denzel Washington) "The most important thing in business is honesty, integrity, hardwork -- family -- never forgetting where we came from."

• (Denzel Washington) "This is my home. My country. Frank Lucas don't run from nobody. This is America."

• (Chinese General) "How would you get it into the States?"
• (Denzel Washington) "You ain't got to worry about that."
• (Chinese General) "Who do you work for in there?"
• (Denzel Washington) "You ain't got to worry about that, either."
• (Chinese General) "Who are you really?"
• (Denzel Washington) "It says right there, Frank Lucas."
• (Chinese General) "I mean, who do you represent?"
• (Denzel Washington) "Me."

• (Denzel Washington) "Ey, ey, ey, ey. Don't rub on that. You Blot that. Ya understand? That's Alpaca. That's $25,000 Alpaca. You blot that s***. You don't rub it, put the club soda on there."

• (Denzel Washington) "Let me ask you something. You think by putting me in jail, you're going to stop even one junkie from dying? Because you won't. If it isn't me, it'll be someone else. With me or without me, nothing's going to change."
• (Russell Crowe) "Then that's the way it is."

• (Denzel Washington) "I've been paying off Johnny law since I was ten years old I put more kids through college than the National Merit Award this is different though, these special investigative unit that's their problem they think their "special""

• (Denzel Washington) "Simple Simon-ass motherf***ers."

• (Denzel Washington) "What is that you got on?"
• (Chiwetel Ejiofor) "What? This?"
• (Denzel Washington) "Yeah, that."
• (Chiwetel Ejiofor) "This is a very, very, very nice suit."
• (Denzel Washington) "That's a very, very, very nice suit, huh?"
• (Chiwetel Ejiofor) "Yeah."
• (Denzel Washington) "That's a clown suit. That's a costume, with a big sign on it that says "Arrest me". You understand? You're too loud, you're making too much noise. Listen to me, the loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room."

• (Denzel Washington) "The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room."

• (Denzel Washington) "My man."

• (Denzel Washington) "Bumpy ain't hardly ever go out no more. After a certain point he stayed in the house. Watch TV. Play chess. Read the newspaper. I thought he was just trying to lead the quiet life, but no, he couldn't go nowhere. Not without something happening."
• (Lymari Nadal) "Frankie -- We can still go out."

• (Denzel Washington) "They tried to kill my Wife."
• (Denzel Washington) "Who are they? -- Huh? -- Maybe it was one of your people?"
• (Armand Assante) "I don't know yet."
• (Denzel Washington) "You don't know."
• (Armand Assante) "No."
• (Denzel Washington) "You don't know."
• (Denzel Washington) "I tell you what I know maybe I should just uh, put five hundred guns out there on the street and just start shooting up some people just to make a point."

• (Denzel Washington) "I got Harlem. I took care of Harlem, so Harlem's gonna take care of me."

• (Denzel Washington) "Now, I got no problem with you showin' up in court tomorrow with your head blown in half."
• (Russell Crowe) "Get in line. That one stretches around the block too."

• (Denzel Washington) "Even a fool gets to be young once."

• (Denzel Washington) "20 Percent."

• (Denzel Washington) "The man I worked for, he had one of the biggest companies in New York City- he ran it for more than fifty years. Fifteen years, eight months, nine days- I was with him every day. I looked after him, took care of him, protected him -- I learned from him. Bumpy was rich, but he wasn't white man rich, you see he wasn't wealthy. He didn't own his own company. He thought he did, but he didn't. He just managed it. White man owned it so they owned him. Nobody owns me, though. Because I own my company. And my company sells a product that's better than the competition at a price that's lower than the competition."

• (Denzel Washington) "What's with this outfit? You know what it says? You wanna know what it says? Arrest me."

• (Denzel Washington) "You want to be like Nicky? Be super fly? You want to work for him? Cook for him? Share a jail cell with him?"

• (Detective Trupo) "Did you pay your bills, Frank?"
• (Denzel Washington) "I don't know what you're talking about."
• (Detective Trupo) "You pay your bills, I asked you?"
• (Denzel Washington) "Look, if you're not getting your share"
• (Detective Trupo) "What's my share? Cause you don't even f***in' know me. Maybe I'm special."

• (Denzel Washington) "You don't shoot cops. Even I know that. Eva knows it. The only one who DOESN'T seem to know is you."
• (Denzel Washington) "All right, Mama. I'm not going to, I promise you. I'm not going to shoot anyone."
• (Denzel Washington) "I never asked you where all this stuff came from, because I didn't want to hear you lie to me. Please --"
• (Denzel Washington) "Ma, I understand. I don't want you to worry about it. Now come on, I have to go --"
• (Denzel Washington) "Don't LIE to me."
• (Denzel Washington) "Don't -- don't do that. Do you want to make things so bad for your family that they'll leave you? Because they will."
• (Denzel Washington) "No. No, Ma, I understand --"
• (Denzel Washington) "She will leave you. I will LEAVE you."

• (Denzel Washington) "See, ya are what ya are in this world. That's either one of two things: Either you're somebody, or you ain't nobody."

• (Denzel Washington) "This is my home. This is where my business is, my wife, my mother, my family. This is my country, I ain't goin' nowhere."

• (Denzel Washington) "What you want me to do? Snitch? I know you don't want no cops. What you want? Gangsters? Pick one. Jew gangsters, mick gangsters, guinees? They been bleeding Harlem dry since they got off the boat. I don't give a f*** about no crime figures. You can have them."
• (Russell Crowe) "I'll take them too."
• (Denzel Washington) "You'll take them too? No you didn't. You talkin about police? You want police? You want your own kind?"
• (Russell Crowe) "They're not my kind. They're in business with you, they ain't my kind. They ain't my kind like the Italians are not yours."

• (Nephew) "I don't wanna play baseball no more."
• (Denzel Washington) "Well, what do you want?"
• (Nephew) "I want what you got Uncle Frank. I wanna be you."

Armand Assante as Dominic Cattano

• (Armand Assante) "I always wonder if people know when history's being made, and what they're doing at the time. This, for instance, could be a historic moment, and you're sipping a glass of ice water."

• (Armand Assante) "Success. It's got enemies. You can be successful and have enemies or you can be unsuccessful and have friends."

• (Armand Assante) "What do you think of monopolies?"
• (Denzel Washington) "You mean like the game?"
• (Armand Assante) "Nah, I just think that monopolies are made illegal in the country, Frank, 'cause nobody wants to compete. Y'know? Nobody wants to compete. Not with a monopoly. I mean, you let the dairy farmers do that, right? They'd be out of business tomorrow."
• (Denzel Washington) "Just tryin' to make a livin'."
• (Armand Assante) "'Course you are right. Everyone's right. It's America. We just can't do it at that unreasonable expense of others. Because then it becomes un-American. That's why the price we pay for that gallon of milk could never represent the true cost of production 'cause it's gotta be controlled, right? It's got to be set. It's gotta be fair."
• (Denzel Washington) "Gotta be controlled by who? I set a price that I think is fair."
• (Armand Assante) "I don't think it's fair."
• (Denzel Washington) "You don't?"
• (Armand Assante) "I don't think it's fair."
• (Denzel Washington) "I think it's fair."
• (Armand Assante) "I know your customers are happy Frank. Bunch of f***in' junkies that they are. What about your fellow dairy farmers out here, Frank? Are you thinkin' of us? You thinkin' of them?"
• (Denzel Washington) "Dairy farmers?"
• (Armand Assante) "Yeah."
• (Denzel Washington) "I'm thinking of them, Dominic, about as much as they've ever thought about me."
• (Armand Assante) "I'm just thinking out loud now. If you took some of your inventory, Frank, and you sold it wholesale, we could work. We could do some distribution."
• (Denzel Washington) "I dunno. I'm pretty good, Dominic. Yannow, I've got 110th to 155th-river to river-I'm alright."
• (Armand Assante) "Well that's kind of a mom and pop store next to what I'm talking about. I mean, let's go at least bigger than K-mart. I'm talking about L.A. Chicago. Detroit. Las Vegas. Let's go nation-wide. Yannow. I'm gonna guarantee you peace of mind here. You're gonna want that. You're gonna need it. I don't know how you view me. Y'know, I'm kinda a Renaissance Man, Frank. Y'know, people I deal with on a daily basis, t-t-they're not enlightened, Frank. You talk to them about Civil Rights, they don't know, y'know? They're not open to things. Not from the way things are done. And who's doin' it? I talk to them, there's just no misunderstandings. And that's what I mean. Buy you peace of mind. Yeah."
• (Denzel Washington) "You're paying what? Seventy-five? Eighty thousand a kilo? I'm a Renaissance Man too. I'll consider fifty thousand."

Russell Crowe as Detective Richie Roberts

• (Russell Crowe) "Bagels and blinches: they will catch up with you, you know?"

• (Russell Crowe) "I want to know everyone you've met for the last twenty years. Everyone you sold to. Every cop you ever paid off. Every one who ever stole from you. Every one you remember."
• (Denzel Washington) "Oh, I remember them all. That's not the problem."
• (Russell Crowe) "What is?"
• (Denzel Washington) "The jails aren't big enough."

• (Russell Crowe) "Laurie, look, I'm sorry I never gave you the kind of life you wanted, all right.I'm sorry it was never enough.Don't punish me for being honest.Don't take my boy away."
• (Carla Gugino) "What are you saying? That because you were honest and you didn't take money like every other cop, I left you? No, you don't take money for one reason. To buy being dishonest about everything else. And that's worse than taking money nobody gives a s*** about.Drug money, gambling money nobody's gonna miss. You know, I'd rather you took it and been honest with me. Or don't take it. I don't care. But then don't go cheat on me.Don't cheat on your kid by never being around. Don't go out and get laid by your snitches and your secretaries and strippers.I can tell by just looking,she's one of them. You think you're going to heaven because you're honest, but you're not You're going to the same hell as the crooked cops you can't stand."

• (Russell Crowe) "His name is Frank Lucas, originally from Greensboro, North Carolina, he has a couple of arrests years ago for gambling and for carrying an unlicensed firearm. For fifteen years he was Bumpy Johnson's driver, bodyguard and collector. Hhe was with him when he died, he has five brothers, he's the oldest and a lot of cousins, they're all living up here now, spread out in the five boroughs and New Jersey. His brother's businesses are the distribution and collection points of Frank's dope and his money. Everything about Frank's life seems unpretentious and broadly legitimate, he starts early, gets up at 5am, has breakfast in a diner in Harlem usually by himself, then he starts work, takes a meeting with his accountant and with his lawyer. At nights he usually stays at home, if he does go out, it's only one of two clubs or a handful of restaurants with his wife, ball players, musicians and his friends and never organized crime guys. Sundays he takes his mother to church and changes the flowers on Bumpy's grave, every Sunday no matter what."

• (Russell Crowe) "They don't want this to stop. It employs too many people. Cops, lawyers, judges, probation officers, prison guards -- The day dope stops coming into this country, a hundred thousand people lose their jobs."

• (Russell Crowe) "I got possession, supply, conspiracy, bribing a law officer, I got your offshore bank accounts, your real estate, your businesses, all bought with money from heroin, I got hundreds of parents from dead kids, addicts who OD'ED and that's my story, that's how I make it all stick for the jury, this man murdered thousands of people and he did it from a penthouse driving a Lincoln, I got a line people wanting to testify against you that stretches out the door and around the block"

• (Detective Trupo) "What's this? Don't tell me you're actually gonna arrest Frank Lucas, are you?"
• (Russell Crowe) "What? Haven't you heard? We're all f***ing crazy over here. You know what we do here? Cops -- arrest -- bad guys. The next time you come across the bridge, you should call me first. Just make sure it's safe."

• (Russell Crowe) "This is the newly formed Essex County narcotics squad, our mandate is to make major arrests, no street guys, we're looking for the suppliers and distributors, Heroin, Cocaine, Amphetamines, no grass under a thousand pounds, no powder under forty kilograms, any less than that we're going to waste our time, we're going to handling the big shipments, the big money, the big temptation"

• (Russell Crowe) "What the f*** is a microwave?"

• (Russell Crowe) "The number one fear of people isn't dying, it's public speaking."

• (Russell Crowe) "His seats were phenomenal better seats than Dominic Cattano, Joe Louis shook his hand, who the f*** is this guy?"

• (Russell Crowe) "Good work Frank. You -- want a drink or something? Celebrate?"
• (Denzel Washington) "You got any holy water?"

• (FBI Agent) "If you want, we can assign someone to you?"
• (Russell Crowe) "FBI protection? My life is dangerous enough as it is."

Lymari Nadal as Eva

• (Lymari Nadal) "Why would you trust these people? And the way they look at you."
• (Denzel Washington) "They look at me like it's Christmas and I'm Santa Claus."
• (Lymari Nadal) "They look at us like we're the help."
• (Denzel Washington) "They work for me, now."

• (Lymari Nadal) "You're Frank and this is your place?"
• (Denzel Washington) "That's right. I'm Frank and this is my place."
• (Lymari Nadal) "Why is it called Small's? Why don't you call it Frank's?"
• (Denzel Washington) "When you own something, you can call it what you want."

• (Detective Trupo) "Your husband's illustrious career is over. Now the Feds are going to come in, they're gonna take everything. I mean they're gonna take it all. But not before I get my gratuity. So where's the money?"
• (Lymari Nadal) "What are you talking about, what money?."
• (Detective Trupo) "What am I talking about, what money? The getaway money that Frank and every other gangster keeps in his house."
• (Lymari Nadal) "If you leave now, there's a chance Frank might not kill you."

Jon Polito as Rossi

• (Jon Polito) "Who can live like that? There has to be order. That would've never happened with Italians. More important than any one man's life -- is order."

• (Jon Polito) "This is the French connection dope, cops seize it, arrest everyone then start taking it out of evidence room, whacking it down to nothing and selling back to us, they basically control the market, they've been doing this for years, they live off it"

• (Jon Polito) "More important than one man's life is order."

Clarence Williams III as Bumpy Johnson

(We don't have any quotes for this character)

Melissa Hill as Redtop

(We don't have any quotes for this character)

Rza as Moses Jones

• (Rza) "I heard a story about you that you found a million dollars in unmarked cash and you gave that s*** back, is that true?"

Idris Elba as Tango

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