Quotes / Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters

Oh, the good old reliable Nathan!
Nathan, Nathan, Nathan Detroit!
If the size of your bundle you want to increase
He'll arrange that you go broke in quiet and peace
In a hideout provided by Nathan,
Where there are no neighbors to squawk
It's the oldest-established permanent floating—!
[sotto] crap game
—in New York!

—Guys and Dolls

Matt: 'Cause it's like, the Yakuza review at the end of the year, they look at everyone's stats like, 'Okay, you beat up like twenty-seven people, and you got back like, thirty-five million yen for us.' And then they'll go to Kiryu. It's like, 'Kiryu, you helped three children, you saved seven cats, and you didn't beat up anyone.'

Pat: Actually, it'd be more like, 'You have, ah, zero money coming in, you are friends with eight police officers, and you've beat up everyone else in the Clan.'

—Super Best Friends Play: Yakuza Kiwami

M: Kiryu is the way yakuza used to be. We kept the streets clean. People liked us. We didn't bother ordinary citizens. We respected our bosses. Now, guys like that only exist in video games.
S: I don't know any ex-yakuza running orphanages.
K: There was one a few years ago. A good guy.
M: You sure it wasn't just a tax shelter?
K: Sure, it was a tax shelter, but he ran it like a legitimate thing. You know.

—Yakuza 3 reviewed by Yakuza

"All I can say is, they did right by me - and I'm bringin' me and a mess of flowers to their funeral."

—A farmer on Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, Bonnie and Clyde

Don Vito Corleone was a man to whom everybody came for help, and never were they disappointed. He made no empty promises, nor the craven excuse that his hands were tied by more powerful forces in the world than himself. It was not necessary that he be your friend, it was not even important that you had no means with which to repay him. Only one thing was required. That you yourself, proclaim your friendship. And then, no matter how poor or powerless the supplicant, Don Corleone would take that man's troubles to his heart. And he would let nothing stand in his way of a solution of that man's woe. His reward? Friendship, the respectful title of "Don," and sometimes the more affectionate salutation of "Godfather."

—The Godfather

Plum Kitaki: Wa ha ha ha ha!!! Don't be such a stiff, lawyer-boy. I suppose we gangsters do have a certain image...
Apollo Justice: Urm, yes.
Plum: But we're community-oriented gangsters, you see. ...The Boss likes to give back to the people, see?
Apollo: (thinking) How noble of him...

— Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Case 4-2: "Turnabout Corner"

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