"Favor gonna kill you faster than a bullet."
Somebody’s pullin’ me close to the ground. I can sense, but I can’t see. I ain’t panicked, I been here before. Same as when I got popped on 104th Street. Don’t take me to no hospital, please. Fuckin’ emergency rooms don’t save nobody. Sons of bitches always pop you at midnight when all they got is a Chinese intern with a dull spoon. Look at these suckers scramblin' around. What for? My Puerto Rican ass ain't supposed to have made it this far. Most of my crew got washed a long time ago. Don't worry. My heart, it don't ever quit.
—Carlito Brigante
Your Honor, with all due respect, past and present, and without further to-do. Let me ensure this court that I am through walkin’ on the wild side. That’s all I’ve been tryin’ to tell you. I have been sick with the social ills known in the ghetto. But my time in the sterling correctional facilities of Green Haven and Sing Sing have not been in vain. I’ve been cured! Born again, like the Watergaters. I know you heard this rap before. Your Honor, I mean it. This is the truth. I changed. I changed, and it didn’t take no thirty years like Your Honor thought, but only five. That’s right, sir, five years. And look at me. Completely rehabilitated, reinvigorated, reassimilated and finally going to be relocated, and I want to thank a lot of people for that. I look over there and I see that man there, Mr. Norwalk. I want to thank you, sir, for making the tapes in an illegal fashion. I would like to thank the Court Of Appeals, for reversing you, Your Honor. And I want to thank Almighty God without whom no case gets tossed.
—Carlito Brigante
You think you’re big time? You’re gonna fuckin’ die big time!
—Carlito Brigante
Oh, Jesus. Jesus Christ, look at you. You said they were friends, Guajiro. But there ain’t no friends in this shit business.
—Carlito Brigante
This guy, this counsellor in Lewisburg, Mr. Seawald, once said to me: “Charlie, you run out of steam. You can’t sprint all the way. You gotta stop sometime. You can’t buck it forever. It catches up to you. It gets you. You don’t get reformed, you just run out of wind.”
—Carlito Brigante
What has happened to you? What are you acting like this for? It doesn’t make sense that you should hate this guy. Because this guy is you, twenty years ago.
—Saso to Carlito after he rebuffs Benny Blanco
Benny Blanco: Mr. Brigante, this is the second time you turned me down for a drink. What, you don’t like my champagne?
Carlito: It could be.
Benny Blanco: Maybe, there’s a mis-fucking-understanding. Maybe you don’t remember me, my name...
Carlito: Maybe I don’t give a shit. Maybe I don’t remember the last time I blew my nose either. Who the fuck are you, that I should remember you, huh? What, you think you’re like me? You ain’t like me, motherfucker. You’re a punk. I’ve been with made people, connected people. Who you been with? Chain-snatchin’, jive-ass, maricón motherfuckers. Why don’t you get lost? Go ahead, snatch a purse. Take a fuckin’ walk.
— Carlito Brigante confronting Benny Blanco from The Bronx
You ain’t a lawyer no more, Dave. You’re a gangster now. You’re on the other side. Whole new ball game. You can’t learn about it at school, and you can’t have a late start.
—Carlito Brigante
Fuck you and your self-righteous code of the goddamn streets. Did it pull you out of a thirty year stint in only five years? No, it didn't, I did. Did it get you acquitted four fucking times? No, it didn't, I did, so fuck you, fuck the streets, your whole goddamn world is this big, and there's only one rule - you save your own ass.
—David Kleinfield
When you can’t see the angles no more, you’re in trouble, baby. You’re in trouble.
—Carlito Brigante
Hey, remember me? Benny Blanco from The Bronx?
—Benny Blanco before shooting Carlito
[last words of the movie] Sorry, boys, all the stitches in the world can’t sew me together again... Lay down. Lay down. Gonna stretch me out in Fernandez Funeral Home on 109th street... Always knew I’d make a stop there, but a lot later than a whole gang of people thought. Last of the Mo-Rican’s. Well, maybe not the last. Gail’s gonna be a good mom. New, improved Carlito Brigante. Hope she uses the money to get out. No room in this city for big hearts like hers... Sorry, baby, I tried the best I could. Honest. Can’t come with me on this trip, though... Gettin’ the shakes now. Last call for drinks. Bar’s closin’ down. Sun’s out. Where we goin’ for breakfast? Don’t wanna go far... Rough night. Tired, baby... Tired...
—Carlito Brigante
