‘Maybe he could sing but he couldn’t fly.’
‘I kept telling him, “Don’t say nothing. Keep quiet, you’ll live longer.”
‘I’ve been on the docks all my life boy, and there’s one thing I learned. You don’t ask no questions, you don’t answer no questions unless you want to wind up like that.’
‘Did you ever hear of a saint hiding in a church?’
‘We got the fattest piers in the fattest habour in the world.’
‘Everything moves in and out, we take our cut.’
‘Why shouldn’t we? If we can get it, we’re entitled to it.’
‘…one lousy cheese-eater that Doyle bum, who thinks he can squeal to the crime commission.’
‘You come from Green Point, go back to Green Point. You don’t work here no more.’
‘You got a real friend here. Now don’t forget it.’
‘They sure got it made. Eating, sleeping, flying around like crazy, raising gobs of squabs.’‘Be careful. Don’t spill no water on the floor. I don’t want them to catch a cold.’
‘Johnny Friendly the “great labour worker’’.’
‘Why don’t you keep that big mouth of yours shut.’
‘I’m poorer now than when I started.’
‘I don’t know nothing, I ain’t seen nothing and I’m not saying nothing.’
‘How do you like them mutts taking me for a pigeon.’
‘You think I’m just a gravy-train rider with a turned-around collar, don’t you?’
‘This is my parish. I don’t know how much I can do, but I’ll never find out unless I come down here and take a good look for myself.’
‘I’ve been standing here for five straight mornings and that bum over there looks right through you.’
‘Is this all you do, just take it like this?’
‘The waterfront’s tougher, Father, like it ain’t part of America.’
‘You get up in a meeting, you make a motion, the lights go out, then you go out.’
‘Why me Charley? I feel funny going down there. Besides, I’d just be stooling for you.’
‘Stooling is when you rat on your friend, the guys you’re with.’
‘Johnny wants a favour. Don’t think about it. Do it.’
‘I’m just a potato-eater, but ain’t it as simple as 1, 2, 3?’
‘The only way we can break the mob is to stop letting them get away with murder.’
‘I have a hunch all of you could tell us something about it.’
‘How can we call ourselves Christians and protect these murderers with our silence?’
‘You know who the pistols are. Are you going to keep still until they cut you down one by one?’
‘On the dock, we’ve always been D and D…deaf and dumb.’
‘No matter how much we hate the torpedoes we don’t rat.’
‘What’s rattling to them is telling the truth for you. Can’t you see that?’
‘He’s all right. He’s an old man, they won’t hurt him.’
‘They’ll put the muscle on you too, turned-around collar or not turned-around collar.’
‘You stand up and I’ll stand up with you.’
‘Your brother was a saint, the only one who ever tried to get me compensation.’
‘You don’t buy me. You’re still a bum.’
‘Who’s calling me a bum?’
‘Don’t pay no attention to him. He’s drunk, he’s falling down. Everything. He’s just a juicehead that hands around the neighbourhood. Don’t pay no attention.’
‘It isn’t just brains. It’s how you use them.’
‘That’s what makes people mean and difficult. People don’t care enough about them.’
‘Pop, I’ve seen things that I know are so wrong. How can I go back to school and keep my mind on things that are just in books that aren’t people living?’
‘I’m going to keep trying to find out who is guilty for Joey.’
‘You know this city is full of hawks? That’s a fact. They hang around on top of big hotels. They spot a pigeon in the park, right down on them.’
‘If another bum comes along and take his place, he really lets him have it.’
‘Even pigeons aren’t peaceful.’
‘There’s one thing about them, they’re very faithful.’
‘Shouldn’t everybody care for everybody else?’
‘Do you want to hear my philosophy of life? Do it to him before he does it to you.’
‘There’s not a spark of sentiment, or romance, or human kindness in your whole body.’
‘When things and people get in your way, you knock them aside, get rid of