The Hustler quotes

View Quote Eddie: Sarah, do you think I'm a loser?
Sarah: A loser?
Eddie: Yeah. I met this guy, Gordon, Bert Gordon. He said I was a born loser.
Sarah: Would he know?
Eddie: He knows a lot.
Sarah: Why did he tell you?
Eddie: I don't know, I'm not sure. He said there are people who, uh, who want to lose, who are always lookin' for an excuse to lose.
Sarah: What does he do, this Bert Gordon?
Eddie: He's a gambler.
Sarah: Is he a winner?
Eddie: He owns things.
Sarah: Is that what makes a winner?
Eddie: What else does?
Sarah: Does it bother you what he said?
Eddie: Yeah. Yeah, it bothers me a lot. Cause you see twice, Sarah, once at Ames with Minnesota Fats, and then again at Arthurs, you know, in that cheap, crummy pool room. Now why did I do it Sarah, why did I do it? I could've beat that guy, I could've beat him cold. He never would have known. But I just had to show him. Just had to show those creeps and those punks what the game is like when it's great, when it's really great. You know, like anything can be great, anything can be great. I don't care - brick-laying can be great if a guy knows. If he knows what he's doin' and why and if he can make it come off.

View Quote Eddie: That's my bank roll, my life's savings. Whatsa matter Fats? All you gotta do is beat me the first game and I'm on my way back to Oakland.
Minnesota Fats: Let's go.
Eddie: Get on me, Bert, I can't lose.

View Quote Eddie: The name's Eddie.
Sarah: The name should be Eddie. What should my name be?
Eddie: I don't know. Whatever you'd like it to be?
Sarah: I'd like it to be what it is, Sarah. That's a Biblical name. You wanna know it's meaning?

View Quote Eddie: Well, you don't leave much when you miss, do ya Fat Man?
Minnesota Fats: That's what the game's all about.

View Quote Eddie: What, no bar?
Cashier: No bar, no pinball machines, no bowling alleys, just pool... nothing else. This is Ames mister.

View Quote Eddie: When I'm goin', when I'm really goin', I feel like a, like a jockey must feel when he's sittin' on his horse, he's got all that speed and that power underneath him, he's coming into the stretch, the pressure's on him - and he knows. He just feels, when to let it go and how much. 'Cause he's got everything workin' for him - timing, touch. It's a great feeling, boy - it's a real great feeling - when you're right and you know you're right. Like all of a sudden, I got oil in my arm. Pool cue's part of me. You know, it's a - pool cue, it's got nerves in it. It's a piece of wood; it's got nerves in it. You can feel the roll of those balls. You don't have to look. You just know. You make shots that nobody's ever made before. And you play that game the way nobody's ever played it before.
Sarah: You're not a loser, Eddie. You're a winner. Some men never get to feel that way about anything. I love you, Eddie.

View Quote Eddie: You know, someday Sarah, you're gonna settle down. You're gonna marry a college professor. You're gonna write a great book - maybe about me, huh? Fast Eddie Felson, Hustler.
Sarah: I love you.
Eddie: Do you need the words?
Sarah: Yes, I need them very much. If you ever say them, I'll never let you take them back.

View Quote Gordon: Eddie, you're a born loser.
Eddie: What's that supposed to mean?
Gordon: First time in ten years I ever saw Minnesota Fats hooked, really hooked. But you let him off.
Eddie: I told you, I got drunk.
Gordon: Sure you got drunk, the best excuse in the world for losin'. No trouble losin' when you got a good excuse. And winning - that can be heavy on your back too, like a monkey. Drop that load too when you got an excuse. All you gotta do is learn to feel sorry for yourself. That's one of the best indoor sports, feelin' sorry for yourself. A sport enjoyed by all - especially the born loser.

View Quote Gordon: Fats went into the john, see, washed his face, cleaned his fingernails, made his mind a blank, combed his hair, came back all ready to go. You were through. You saw him, you saw how he looked, clean, all set to start all over again. Hold tight and push hard. And you know what you were doin'? You were waitin' to get beaten, flattened down on your butt, swimmin' around in glory and whiskey. You were probably decidin' how you can lose.
Sarah: What makes you know so much? How do you know what Eddie was thinking?
Gordon: I know. I've been there myself. We've all been there, haven't we, Miss Packard?...[To Eddie] How's your hand?
Eddie: Fine.
Gordon: Good. I'd hate to think I was puttin' my money on a cripple.
Eddie: Hey, what do ya say somethin' like that for?
Sarah: It's alright, Eddie. I'm sure Mr. Gordon meant no offense. It's a figure of speech.
Gordon: That's right, Miss Packard.
Sarah: A fact is a fact.
Gordon: Smart girl, Eddie.

View Quote Gordon: He told me to give you some money.
Sarah: Put it on the bed. That's the way it's done, isn't it?
Gordon: That's the way it's done.
Sarah: And that way you are looking at me. Is that the way you look at a man you've just beaten? As if you've just taken his money and now you want his ... his pride?
Gordon: All I want's the money.
Sarah: Sure, sure, just the money. The aristocratic pleasure of seeing him fall apart. You're a Roman, Bert. You have to win more.
[He grabs her and kisses her]
Sarah: Is that a drink?

View Quote Gordon: I don't think there's a pool player alive who shoots better pool than I saw you shoot the other night at Ames. You got talent.
Eddie: So I got talent? So what beat me?
Gordon: Character.
Eddie: Sure, sure.
Gordon: You're damn right I'm sure. Everybody's got talent, I got talent. You think you can play big-money straight pool or poker for forty straight hours on nothing but talent? You think they call Minnesota Fats the best in the country just cause he got talent? Nah, Minnesota Fats's got more character in one finger than you got in your whole skinny body.
Eddie: I got drunk.
Gordon: He drank as much whiskey as you do.
Eddie: Maybe he knows how to drink.
Gordon: You bet he knows how. You think that's a talent too, huh, knowin' how to drink whiskey? You think Minnesota Fats was born knowin' how to drink?
Eddie: OK, OK, what do I do now? Lie down on the floor and, uh, bow from the ankles? What do I do, go home?
Gordon: That's your problem.
Eddie: So I stay. I stay until I hustle up enough to play Fats again. And maybe by that time, I'll develop myself some character.
Gordon: [chuckling] Maybe by that time you'll die of old age. How much do you think you'll, uh, need?
Eddie: A thousand.
Gordon: Naw, three thousand at least. He'll start you off at five hundred a game, he'll beat the pants off ya. That's the way he plays when he comes up against a man who knows the way the game is. He'll beat you flat four or five times, maybe more, depending on how, uh, steady your nerves are. Then he might, just might be a little scared of ya, and that could change things, but I wouldn't count on it.
Eddie: How do you know, huh, when nobody knows that much?
Gordon: You see that big car parked out by the fireplug on your way in? Well, that's mine. I like that car. But I get a new one every year, because I make it my business to know what guys like you and Minnesota Fats are gonna do. I made enough off you the other night to pay for it twice over.

View Quote Gordon: I want to talk to you.
Sarah: Do we need words?
Gordon: Yeah, I think we do. We could try to cut each other up, but that would be bad for everybody. Bad for me, bad for you. Worst of all, it would be bad for Eddie.
Sarah: You know what's good for him.
Gordon: To win.
Sarah: For whom and for what?
Gordon: For what makes the world go 'round. For money - and for glory.
Sarah: You didn't answer my first question. For whom?
Gordon: Today for me, tomorrow for himself.
Sarah: No, there's no tomorrow, not with you. You own all the tomorrows because you buy them today - and you buy cheap.
Gordon: Nobody has to sell.
Sarah: You bastard.
Gordon: Listen, Miss Lady Bird. You're here on a rain-check and I know it. You're hangin' on by your nails. You let that glory whistle blow loud and clear for Eddie, and you're a wreck on a railroad track. You're a horse that finished last. Now don't make trouble, Miss Lady Bird. Live and let live - while you can! [chuckling] I'll make it up to you.
Sarah: How?
Gordon: You tell me.

View Quote Gordon: Where do you think you're going? Eddie? You owe me money!
Eddie: Well, just how do ya figure that, Bert? Whaddya figure I owe ya?
Gordon: Half.
Eddie: In Louisville, it was seventy-five percent.
Gordon: Well, here it's half.
Eddie: What if I don't pay ya, Bert?
Gordon: [laughs] You don't pay me? You're gonna get your thumbs broken again. And your fingers. If I want 'em to, they're gonna break your right arm in three or four places.
Minnesota Fats: You better pay him, Eddie.
Eddie: So you figure you're still my manager, huh?
Gordon: I'm a businessman, kid.
Eddie: Well, you gotta lot of games lined up for me?
Gordon: Boy, we're gonna make a lotta money together from now on.
Eddie: Fifty percent?
Gordon: Nah, it don't have to be fifty. It'll be thirty or twenty-five.
Eddie: We really stuck the knife in her, didn't we, Bert?
Gordon: Ahh!
Eddie: Boy, we really gave it to her good.
Gordon: If it didn't happen in Louisville, it'd happen someplace else. If it didn't happen now, it'd happen six months from now. That's the kind of a dame she was.
Eddie: Then we twisted it, didn't we, Bert? Of course, maybe that doesn't stick in your throat, 'cause you spit it out just the way you spit out everything else. But it sticks in mine. I loved her, Bert. I traded her in on a pool game. But that wouldn't mean anything to you because who did you ever care about. 'Just win,' 'Win!' you said, 'win, that's the important thing.' You don't know what winning is, Bert. You're a loser. 'Cause you're dead inside and ya can't live unless you make everything dead around ya! Too high, Bert - the price is too high. If I take it, she never lived. She never died. And we both know that's not true, Bert, don't we, huh? She lived, she died. Boy, you better, you tell your boys they better kill me, Bert. They better go all the way with me, but if they just bust me up, I'll put all those pieces back together again, then so help me, so help me God, Bert, I'm gonna come back here and I'm gonna kill you. [Bert's thugs move toward Eddie]
Gordon: [Gordon gestures to his goons to back off.] All right. All right. Only, uh, don't ever walk into a big-time pool hall again.

View Quote Minnesota Fats: [After playing for 25 straight hours] Fast Eddie, let's play some pool.
Eddie: [unsteadily] You look beautiful, Fats, just like a baby, all pink and powdered up.
Charlie: What are ya tryin' to do Eddie? Beat him? You beat him bad. Do you want to kill yourself?
Eddie: What are ya, chicken, Charlie?
Charlie: Yeah, maybe that's it, I'm chicken.

View Quote Minnesota Fats: You shoot a good stick.
Eddie: They say Minnesota Fats is the best in the country out where I come from...They say that old Fats just shoots the eyes right off them balls.
Minnesota Fats: Big John? Do you think this boy is a hustler? [to Eddie] Do you like to gamble, Eddie? Gamble money on pool games?
Eddie: Fats, let's you and I shoot a game of straight pool.
Minnesota Fats: A hundred dollars.
Eddie: Well, you shoot big-time pool, Fats. I mean, that's what everybody says, 'You shoot big-time pool.' Let's make it two hundred dollars a game.
Minnesota Fats: Now I know why they call you 'Fast' Eddie. Eddie, you talk my kind of talk.