- Maurice 'Maury' Levy: You are amoral, are you not? You are feeding off the violence and the despair of the drug trade. You are stealing from those who themselves are stealing the lifeblood from our city. You are a parasite who leeches off...
- Omar: Just like you, man.
- Maurice 'Maury' Levy: ...the culture of drugs. Excuse me? What?
- Omar: I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase. It's all in the game though, right?
- D'Angelo Barksdale: He's saying that the past is always with us, and where we come from, what we go through, how we go through it, all this shit matters. I mean, that's what I thought he meant.
- Book Group Leader: Go ahead.
- D'Angelo Barksdale: Like at the end of the book, you know, boats and tides and all. It's like you can change up, right, you can say you somebody new, you can give yourself a whole new story. But, what came first is who you really are and what happened before is what really happened. And it don't matter that some fool say he different cuz the only thing that make you different is what you really do, what you really go through. Like, ya know, like all them books in his library. He frontin with all them books, but if you pull one down off the shelf, ain't none of the pages ever been opened. He got all them books, and he ain't read near one of 'em. Gatsby, he was who he was, and he did what he did. And cuz he wasn't ready to get real with the story, that shit caught up to him. I think, anyway.
- Omar Little: That wasn't no attempt murder.
- Maurice 'Maury' Levy: What was it, Mr. Little?
- Omar Little: I shot the boy Mike-Mike in his hind parts, that all.
- [Jury laughs]
- Omar Little: Fixed it up so he couldn't sit right.
- [Judge chuckles]
- Maurice 'Maury' Levy: Why'd you shoot Mike-Mike in his, um, hind parts, Mr. Little?
- Omar Little: Let's say we had a disagreement.
- Maurice 'Maury' Levy: A disagreement over?
- Omar Little: Well, you see, Mike-Mike thought he should keep that cocaine he was slingin' and the money he was makin' from slingin' it. I thought otherwise.
- State's Atty. Ilene Nathan: Mr. Little, how does a man rob drug dealers for eight or nine years and live to tell about it?
- Omar: [slight pause, slight shrug] Day at a time, I s'pose.
- D'Angelo Barksdale: [quote after opening credits] It don't matter that some fool say he different...
- State's Atty. Ilene Nathan: And what is your occupation?
- Omar Little: Occupation?
- State's Atty. Ilene Nathan: What exactly do you do for a living, Mr. Little?
- Omar Little: I rip and run.
- State's Atty. Ilene Nathan: You...?
- Omar Little: I robs drug dealers!
- [Jury laughs]
- Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: [about the murderer Omar testified against in court] You really seen him shoot the man?
- Omar: You really asking?
- Judge Daniel Phelan: I'm going to schedule sentencing for the third week of next month. Anything else today?
- Maurice 'Maury' Levy: Uh, Your Honor... my client, having preserved the necessary grounds for appeal in the record, wishes me to state unequivocally that, regardless of this jury's verdict, he is the victim of wholesale perjury on the part of the state's key witness, and we ask that an appeal bond be set so that he can participate fully in this investigation.
- Judge Daniel Phelan: An appeal bond on a conviction of first-degree murder? Mr. Levy, get a grip on yourself.
- Maurice 'Maury' Levy: Your Honor...
- Judge Daniel Phelan: [cutting him off] Not only will there be no bond pending sentencing, but as far as I'm concerned, the pre-sentencing report is a mere formality. Mr. Hilton has been found guilty of killing a state's witness, who testified in this very courtroom. He did so in cold blood, and for pay. Unless the pre-sentence report indicates that he is, in fact, the Messiah come again, he will very likely be sentenced to life, no parole, by a Baltimore judge who, for once in his life, gets to leave his office feeling that his job actually matters. Mr. Hilton, are you the second coming of our Savior?
- Marquis 'Bird' Hilton: Excuse me?
- Judge Daniel Phelan: Are you Jesus Christ come back to earth?
- Marquis 'Bird' Hilton: Umm...
- [Phelan abruptly bangs his gavel and stands up to leave]
- Judge Daniel Phelan: See you at sentencing.
- [Sergei warns Nick outside Prop Joe's shop before their meeting]
- Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: Talk when I say. Not before.
- [they walk in; Sergei spreads his arms when he sees Joe]
- Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: Tovarich.
- Proposition Joe Stewart: Sergei. My nigga.
- [he laughs, and they embrace]
- Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: You're losing weight.
- Proposition Joe Stewart: Sheeeit!
- Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: You're down to nothing. In this country, supermarkets are cathedrals. I worry for you, buddy.
- Proposition Joe Stewart: How your peoples, dawg?
- Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: Same. Good.
- Proposition Joe Stewart: Hey, you talk to the man about that other thing, right? 'Cause I can get behind that bidness in a big way.
- Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: We'll talk. Later. Now, another business.
- Proposition Joe Stewart: Right, right. This the man with the raggedy-ass Camaro.
- Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka: Wasn't mine, it was my cousin's. Wasn't all that raggedy.
- [Sergei gives Nick a disapproving look, then turns to Joe]
- Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: Sorry. Nicky is with us. His cousin...
- [he rolls his eyes and shakes his head, then shrugs]
- Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: ... but family cannot be helped.
- Proposition Joe Stewart: Who you tellin'? I got muthafuckin' nephews and in-laws fuckin' all my shit up all the time, and it ain't like I can pop a cap in they ass and not hear about it Thanksgivin' time. For real, I'm livin' life with some burdensome niggas.
- [he turns to Nick]
- Proposition Joe Stewart: So what the fuck?
- [Sergei motions for Nick to sit; he does]
- Proposition Joe Stewart: You ain't pay my boy Cheese, and Cheese ain't payin' me, right? Now I ain't talkin' 'bout all the money in the world, but it ain't like Cheese be in a position out on that corner to let ya cuz exemplify shit, you feel? The man cut you some slack, and soon every fuckin'-up white boy be on his titty.
- Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka: We wanna pay what we owe. Twenty-seven, anyway. And we're gonna have it soon enough.
- Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: Your man doubled it, though.
- Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka: He also burned the car. Now, the Blue Book on that Camaro is fifty-one.
- Proposition Joe Stewart: [in disbelief] Now, let me understand. You gonna come up in here havin' fucked up a package, askin' me to tell Cheese, who you fucked it up on, to pay you out twenty-four hundred dollars?
- Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka: He gets to keep the Camaro.
- Proposition Joe Stewart: [to Sergei] Just how good a friend is this muthafucka to y'all?
- [Sergei shrugs. Joe motions to one of his men, who counts out a stack of bills; Joe passes the money to Nick]
- Proposition Joe Stewart: The Cheese ain't gonna be happy havin' to pay me back, so I would advise y'all to give him some distance.
- Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka: Just so he don't come back on my cousin.
- [Sergei motions him out]
- Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka: Anyway... thanks for bein' straight on this.
- Proposition Joe Stewart: Fool, if it wasn't for Sergei here, you and ya cuz both would be cadaverous muthafuckas.
- Maurice 'Maury' Levy: How many times have you been arrested as an adult, Mr Little?
- Omar Little: Shoot, I done lost count. Enough to know not to take it personal, though...
- Maurice 'Maury' Levy: You are amoral, are you not? You are feeding off the violence and the despair of the drug trade. You're stealing from those who themselves are stealing the lifeblood from our city. You are a parasite who leeches off...
- Omar: Just like you, man.
- Maurice 'Maury' Levy: ...the culture of drugs... Excuse me, what?
- Omar: I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase. It's all in the game, though, right?
- Prosecutor: Mr. Little, how does a man rob drug dealers for eight or nine years, and live to tell about it?
- Omar: Day at a time, I suppose.
- Maurice 'Maury' Levy: Why should we believe your testimony then? Why believe anything you say?
- Omar Little: That's up to y'all, really.