The Hustler quotes

View Quote Big John: [to Charlie Burns] Take your boy and go home. Fats don't need your money. There's no way you can beat him. Nobody's beat him in fifteen years. He's the best in the country.

View Quote Charlie Burns: [to Eddie] We were partners. We were more than partners.

View Quote James Findlay: [to Bert Gordon, referring to a statue of the devil] This fellow here bears a striking resemblance to you. It seems as though you might have modeled for the artist.

View Quote Minnesota Fats: I quit, Eddie. I can't beat you...[To Gordon] You've got yourself a pool player.

View Quote Charlie Burns: [to Sarah] This boy is the greatest pool hustler you ever saw, a real high-class con-man. He can charm anybody into anything. Did he ever tell you how well we've been doing on the road. We had everything. We ate good, we slept late, we had money to burn. Whiskey, dames, excuse me. I'll tell you what, take her along. I'll tell you what else, you don't want to start right away, we won't start it right away. We'll get in the car and drive to Miami, get all this crud out of your system. Have a few laughs, lie in the sun for a couple of weeks.
Eddie: With what?
Charlie: Don't worry about it. I'll raise the money.
Eddie: Oh yeah, where?
Charlie: What's the difference where? I'll raise it.

View Quote Charlie: [after they've played all night] The pool game is over.
Eddie: The pool game is over when Fats says it's over...I came after him and I'm gonna get him. I'm goin' with him all the way. The pool game is not over until Minnesota Fats says it's over. Is it over, Fats?
[Fats turns to Gordon for the answer.]
Eddie: [to Gordon] I'm gonna beat him, Mister. I beat him all night and I'm gonna beat him all day. I'm, I'm the best you ever seen, Fats. I'm the best there is. Now even if you beat me, I'm still the best.
Gordon: [to Fats] Stay with this kid. He's a loser.
Eddie: [to Charlie] What did he say?

View Quote Charlie: It's quiet.
Eddie: Yeah, like a church. Church of the Good Hustler.
Charlie: It looks more like a morgue to me. Those tables are the slabs they lay the stiffs on.
Eddie: I'll be alive when I get out, Charlie.

View Quote Charlie: Quit, he's too good.
Eddie: Charlie, I'm gonna take him.

View Quote Eddie: [After Gordon has offered to front him the money, for a 75-25 split of the winnings] That's a pretty big slice. Who do you think you are, General Motors?
Gordon: How much you think you're worth these days? I'm puttin' up the money, I'm puttin' up the time. For that, I get seventy-five percent return on my money - if you win.
Eddie: Do you think I can lose?
Gordon: I never saw you do anything else.
Eddie: You saw me beat Minnesota Fats for eighteen thousand dollars.
Gordon: Look, you want to hustle pool, don't ya? This game isn't like football. Nobody pays you for yardage. When you hustle, you keep score real simple. At the end of the game, you count up your money. That's how you find out who's best. It's the only way.
Eddie: Why back me, then, huh? Why don't you go back yourself? Go find yourself a big fat poker game and get rich. You know all the angles.
Gordon: I'm already rich. But I like action. That's one thing I think you're good for - is action. Besides, like I say, you got talent.
Eddie: Yeah, you already told me that. You cut that slice down to bite size, maybe we could talk.
Gordon: No, we don't talk. I don't make bad bets. Seventy-five, twenty-five, that's it.
Eddie: Kiss off!
Gordon: Hey wait! What are you gonna do about the money?
Eddie: There are places. I'll scuffle around.
Gordon: The word's out on you, Eddie. You walk in the wrong kind of place, they'll eat ya alive.
Eddie: And when did you adopt me?
Gordon: I don't know when it was.

View Quote Eddie: A big creep broke my thumbs.
Gordon: A man named Turk Baker?
Eddie: You know everybody, don't ya?
Gordon: Everybody who can hurt me. Everybody who can help me pays.
Eddie: Maybe you ought to give me lessons.
Gordon: Sign up.
Eddie: Where do I sign?

View Quote Eddie: Didn't leave you much.
Minnesota Fats: You left enough.

View Quote Eddie: Fat Man, you shoot a great game of pool.
Minnesota Fats: So do you, Fast Eddie.

View Quote Eddie: How should I play that one, Bert? Play it safe? That's the way you always told me to play it, safe. Play the percentage. Well here we go, fast and loose. One ball, corner pocket. Yeah, percentage players die broke too, don't they, Bert? How can I lose? Twelve ball. How can I lose? Because you were right. It's not enough that ya just have talent. You gotta have character, too. Four ball. Yeah, I sure got character now. I picked it up in a hotel room in Louisville.
Minnesota Fats: Shoot pool, Fast Eddie.
Eddie: I'm shootin' pool, Fats. When I miss, you can shoot. Five ball. Fourteen ball. Twelve ball...

View Quote Eddie: I thought we came here to play pool.
Findlay: I don't play pool, Mr. Felson. I play billiards. My house, my game. You don't have to play if you don't want to.
Gordon: We won't.
Eddie: Come on Bert, let me play him.

View Quote Eddie: Please don't get off me now, Bert.
Gordon: I know when to quit and you don't. Win or lose, you don't know when to quit.
Eddie: [on his knees] What do ya want me to do, huh? What do ya want me to do? Just say it and you got it, but please don't get off me now.
Sarah: Don't beg him, Eddie.
Eddie: Go on back to the hotel.
Sarah: Please Eddie, don't beg him.
Eddie: Go on back to the hotel, take a cab. Go on back to the hotel.
Sarah: Doesn't all of this come through to you, Eddie? Doesn't any of this mean anything to you? That man, this place, the people. They wear masks, Eddie and underneath the masks they're perverted, twisted, crippled....
Eddie: Shut up!
Sarah: Don't wear a mask, Eddie. You don't have to. That's Turk, Eddie, the man who broke your thumbs. Well, he's not gonna break your thumbs. He'll break your heart, your guts, and for the same reason. He hates you because of what you are, cause of what you have and he hasn't.
Eddie: Would you get off my back, Sarah, once and for all, would you get out?! Would you get off my back?!
Gordon: Go ahead and play him, Eddie. Play him for a thousand dollars a game.