- Bama McCall: [Bama is introducing Gator to his seven-foot-tall bodyguard] Ask him why they call him "Bones."
- Gator McKlusky: Why they call you "Bones?"
- Bones: Because I TELL them to!
- Officer Talmadge: That ain't no ordinary boat he's got there, it's got some kind of damn rocket on it. Oh! Shit!
- Aggie Maybank: [Gator and Aggie are lying on the beach together at night, talking. Aggie sits up, in front of Gator] You've charmed the shirt...
- Aggie Maybank: [Unbuttons and removes her shirt] ... right off my back.
- Gator McKlusky: Take off Uncle Henry's hat.
- [She removes the hat, let's her hair flow down, and covers her breasts with the hat. Gator kisses her, they embrace and lie down in the sand, still kissing]
- The Governor: New York is a fine state. A fine state. The Big Apple. Been there many times myself. Saw "Fiddler on the Roof" three times.
- The Governor: I'll be on national TV, at the convention. And the delegates and people all over the country, what do you think they'll be thinking about? Nomination? No way! They're gonna say, "There's that that dumb cracker..."
- Ned McKlusky: Since that boy got back from that place up there he ain't been worth a tinker's damn. He wants to be like an old tomcat. He wants to prowl all night and sleep all day. Ain't been able to get a lick of work out of him ever since he got back down here.
- Irving Greenfield: Look at this. I'm riding with a nut named Gator, looking for a putz named Bama! Don't you people have regular names?
- Gator McKlusky: Oh, you mean them intelligent names, like you've got up in New York City? Like "Yogi"?
- Gator McKlusky: Yes, you is going back to school. Come September, you're gonna be in school, girl.
- Suzie McKlusky: Can I play football?
- Gator McKlusky: Yeah.
- Smiley: And wear pretty little dresses, too.
- Suzie McKlusky: Don't like no dresses.
- Gator McKlusky: Well, your momma sure did.
- Emmeline Cavanaugh: Patrick McGinnin, I have known you since you were 11 years old and you were a sweet young man and your father a Catholic priest.
- Patrick, Young Policeman: Baptist minister.
- Emmeline Cavanaugh: Right.
- Mayor Caffrey: When that TV camera starts showing us, I want you all to show your best 'cause you got the best. And we're gonna have the best city south of Baltimore! Who in the hell gives a damn what's north of Baltimore?
- Patrick, Young Policeman: You stick me in the eye with that sign, you're gonna be in real trouble.
- Emmeline Cavanaugh: I'm a citizen. I've got my rights. I'd like to stick it someplace else!
- Mayor Caffrey: Do you folks know the difference between Uncle Sam, a rooster and an old maid? Well, Uncle Sam says, "Yankee-doodle-do," and the rooster says, "Cock-a-doodle-do" and an old maid says, "Any-old-dude'll-do."
- Irving Greenfield: We're undercover men, goddamn it! Oh, shit.
- Gator McKlusky: Undercover. You, undercover in Dunston. You're gonna stick out in Dunston, like a bagel in a bucket of grits.
- Smiley: Understand you just got out of the clinker?
- Gator McKlusky: Yeah.
- Smiley: Well, I ain't never been, but I hear there's a whole bunch of queers just crawlin' all over your body up there.
- Gator McKlusky: Yeah, that's what they say.
- Bama McCall: Don't nobody like to watch that junk on television, anyway. It's depressing, ain't it?
- Aggie Maybank: Mr. McCall, television is independently owned and there's an FCC regulation that forbids interference by local political authorities.
- Bama McCall: Honey, now look, if you want to have a drink with us, you're welcome to stay. But if you come over here to piss and moan at me, excuse my French, then I don't want to hear your women's lib, poverty-program bullshit! Not while I'm enjoying my meal here with my friend and payin' for it with my own money.
- Bama McCall: Don't you ever knock on the door or nothin'? I mean, you could've caught a fella with his britches down.
- Bama McCall: What you can hold in your hand, you got, son. And what you can taste, you got. And all the poontang you get, well that's yours, see. Can't nobody - can't nobody can take that away from you. I hate to be the one to tell you this. But everybody out there - everybody's a taker. I mean it. From the top, son, to the bottom. They're all takers. And you have got to reach out there, and you've got to take it. Well, if you don't, somebody's gonna reach out there like that and they gonna take you.
- Gator McKlusky: She can't be more than 15.
- Bama McCall: Hell, I don't go by age, I go by weight, anyway. I mean, hell, your momma and my momma both done married, done had young'uns and the whole shootin' match when they wasn't a damn bit older than she was.
- Bama McCall: Gator, look. Son, I don't hook these chicks. I don't hustle these chicks. I damn sure don't go out on the street and drag them in here. They come in to pay for that habit they got.
- Gator McKlusky: Well, there's money, and then there's money, Bama.
- Bama McCall: I didn't make the world the way it was, Gator.
- Gator McKlusky: No, you just collect off it.
- Gator McKlusky: What's she on?
- Bama McCall: She's on Quaaludes. She's on Mandrax. She's on Parest. She's on coke. You name it, son. I mean, if they make it, then that chick'll take it.
- Young Girl: [lying on red satin sheets] Why are you so far away? Come here. I'll treat you like a king.
- Gator McKlusky: Why would you want to do that?
- Young Girl: I could do things. Certain things.
- [opens up music box, takes out coke, sniffs it]
- Gator McKlusky: [got offered some coke, struck the young girl's hand away, grabs her by her shoulders] How old are you?
- Young Girl: Fifteen and a half.
- Gator McKlusky: Fifteen and a half?
- Young Girl: Ain't nobody up here older than sixteen. Bama likes it that way.
- Bama McCall: Now, son, before you is a young, beautiful, tender flower of passion. So I'll tell you what. Now, you get over there and I'll bet that pretty little thing will make you forget whatever's gnawing at you. Come on, sport, you need to get your pipes cleaned out anyway.
- Gator McKlusky: I want to go home.
- Bama McCall: There ain't nothing waitin' on you at home except a whiskey bust.
- Irving Greenfield: See, what's important, Charlie, sitting and drinking like this it's the information on the connection on the deal, you know? Charlie, you gotta know who the guy with the brass nuts is!
- Aggie Maybank: You're a schmuck.
- Gator McKlusky: Did you learn that at Vassar?
- Aggie Maybank: Radcliffe.
- Irving Greenfield: Look, I remember when I was a kid in Brooklyn there were guys like Thurman Arnold and Fiorello LaGuardia around. What do you think they'd do now?
- Gator McKlusky: Fiorello who?
- Irving Greenfield: LaGuardia, you putz! He cleaned up New York 35 years ago.
- Gator McKlusky: Oh, yeah? It got dirty again.
- Bartender: Where are you from, buddy?
- Irving Greenfield: North of here.
- Bartender: Like 1,200 miles north?
- Irving Greenfield: Oh, no!
- Bartender: You don't look like you're from around here.
- Irving Greenfield: I don't get out much.
- Aggie Maybank: Can I buy you a drink?
- Gator McKlusky: Is a pig's ass pork? 'Course you can buy me a drink. Women's lib, I love it. Just because you buy me a drink, doesn't mean you own me, you know. I know how you are, you turn into an octopus. You women are all alike. You're all animals.
- Aggie Maybank: Where you going?
- Gator McKlusky: I'm gonna find a massage parlor.
- Aggie Maybank: Wait a minute. Don't you want to talk to Miss Cavanaugh?
- Gator McKlusky: Does she give massages?
- Gator McKlusky: Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Who said that you could make all the decisions? Who said that you could make all the decisions? I should be making the decisions. That was a - that was a good decision that you made there. Wasn't that a good one that she made there?
- Aggie Maybank: I don't know anything about you.
- Gator McKlusky: I don't know anything about me, either.
- Gator McKlusky: I think I was born about 100 years too late. I should have been around when not having any style was in style.
- Emmeline Cavanaugh: I bet they're gonna walk in the moonlight.
- Irving Greenfield: Good luck to them. If there's moonlight, they'll walk in it. Right?
- Emmeline Cavanaugh: You're a very masculine man.
- Irving Greenfield: Lady, will you give me a break, please?
- Emmeline Cavanaugh: I'll bet you think I've never been married.
- Irving Greenfield: I don't care.
- Emmeline Cavanaugh: Well, I've never been married. In fact, I've never even been...
- Irving Greenfield: Lady!
- Emmeline Cavanaugh: I'm strangely attracted to you.
- Irving Greenfield: Oh, my - God!
- Gator McKlusky: I saw you last night.
- Aggie Maybank: You did! Did you really?
- Gator McKlusky: Yes.
- Aggie Maybank: Did you really? National! I went national. Did you hear how Cronkite introduced me?
- Gator McKlusky: Well, I don't remember the exact words.
- Aggie Maybank: Why not? I did.
- Aggie Maybank: Do you like the ocean?
- Gator McKlusky: I love the ocean.
- Aggie Maybank: Me, too.
- Gator McKlusky: It's beautiful. Sometimes, I hate to look at it all at once, though. I have to look at it a little bit at a time. I'm afraid if I look at it all at once, it'll disappear. That's the way I have to look at you. A little bit at a time. I'm afraid if I look at you all at once, you'll disappear.
- Gator McKlusky: What do you want to do?
- Aggie Maybank: I want to win a Pulitzer Prize and make love to you on the terrace of a New York apartment. A penthouse, in fact.
- Gator McKlusky: Settle for an old Rotary Club football trophy and a hump in the swamp?
- Jack Bridger: Sir, I have a man outside who may have the key to Dunston County. He's on loan to us from the U.S. Justice Department, New York. One of the top men in their strike force. His name is Irving Greenfield.
- The Governor: Wait a minute. Wait, did you say New York?
- Jack Bridger: Yes, sir.
- The Governor: Bridger, come here. New York? Irving Greenfield? Jew? Why?