The Wire Quotes
Phelan: Gets himself elected on law and order ticket, crime doesn't go down much, and then uh, couple o' weeks before he starts gearing up for Governor, some wing-nut starts killin' people, takin' photographs, sendin' 'em to the newspaper. You know something, you might wanna check up on the governor's alibi's.
TV Show: The Wire
Beadie: All the guys at the bar, Jimmy, all the girls; they don't show up at your wake. Not because they don't like you. But because, they never knew your last name. Then a month later, someone tells them, "Oh, Jimmy died." "Jimmy who?" "Jimmy the Cop." "Ohhh," they say, "him". And all the people on the job, all those people you spent all the hours in the radio cars with, the guys with their feet up on the desk, tellin' stories, who shorted you on your food runs, who signed your overtime slips. In the end, they're not gonna be there either. Family, that's it. Family, and if you're lucky, one or two friends who are the same as family. That's all the best of us get. Everything else is just...
TV Show: The Wire
McNulty: You start to tell the story, you think you're the hero, and then when you get done talking...
TV Show: The Wire
McNulty: You miss what you had though?
Kima: I still got too much dog in me to be settled like that.
Kima: I still got too much dog in me to be settled like that.
TV Show: The Wire
Omar: You workin' a Stanfield corner, which means you workin' for a straight up punk! Ya' feel me? I'm out here in these streets every day, me and my lonesome, and where he at? Huh? A'yo, ya'll put it in his ear, Marlo Stanfield is not a man for this town, ya' digg?
TV Show: The Wire
Rawls: Bad news gentlemen, as we're actually gonna have to catch this motherfucker. Good news is that our Mayor finally needs a police department more than he needs a school system.
TV Show: The Wire
Landsman: [To McNulty] From everything we've given you, fire should be shootin' outta your ass. But there you sit, like a genital wart.
TV Show: The Wire
Carcetti: You know, I always wanted to say how sorry I am about how things turned out. There wasn't anything I could have done with your experiment in the Western District, there wasn't anything that anyone could have done with that.
Colvin: Yeah, well, I guess, Mr. Mayor, there's nothing to be done.
Colvin: Yeah, well, I guess, Mr. Mayor, there's nothing to be done.
TV Show: The Wire
Bubbles: Ain't no shame in holdin' on to grief, as long as you make room for other things too.
TV Show: The Wire
Michael: Why? What I do wrong?
Snoop: Chris locked up behind somethin' he done for you. And you downtown wit' the police.
Michael: I ain't say a word.
Snoop: Yeah, that's what you say. But it's how you carry yourself. Always apart. Always aksin', "Why?". When you should be doin' what you're told. You was never one of us. And you never could be [...] How my hair look, Mike?
Michael: You look good girl. [gunshot]
Snoop: Chris locked up behind somethin' he done for you. And you downtown wit' the police.
Michael: I ain't say a word.
Snoop: Yeah, that's what you say. But it's how you carry yourself. Always apart. Always aksin', "Why?". When you should be doin' what you're told. You was never one of us. And you never could be [...] How my hair look, Mike?
Michael: You look good girl. [gunshot]
TV Show: The Wire
Chris Partlow: Omar tried calling you out by name, but shit, no one --
Marlo Stanfield: What he say about me?
Chris Partlow: Nothing, man. Just talking shit.
Marlo Stanfield: He used my name? In the street?
[Pause]
Marlo Stanfield: Talk, motherfucker!
Monk: He just, you know, say that you need to step to and that . . . I don't know. He just running his mouth some.
Marlo Stanfield: He call me a punk?
Chris Partlow: It was bullshit, man. You ain't need that on your mind.
Marlo Stanfield: What the fuck you know about what I need on my mind, motherfucker? My name was on the street? When we bounce from this shit here, y'all going to go down on them corners and let the people know: Word did not get back to me. Let them know Marlo step to any motherfucker -- Omar, Barksdale, whoever. My name is my name!
Marlo Stanfield: What he say about me?
Chris Partlow: Nothing, man. Just talking shit.
Marlo Stanfield: He used my name? In the street?
[Pause]
Marlo Stanfield: Talk, motherfucker!
Monk: He just, you know, say that you need to step to and that . . . I don't know. He just running his mouth some.
Marlo Stanfield: He call me a punk?
Chris Partlow: It was bullshit, man. You ain't need that on your mind.
Marlo Stanfield: What the fuck you know about what I need on my mind, motherfucker? My name was on the street? When we bounce from this shit here, y'all going to go down on them corners and let the people know: Word did not get back to me. Let them know Marlo step to any motherfucker -- Omar, Barksdale, whoever. My name is my name!
TV Show: The Wire
Prez: I can do it, if that's what you want. And I don't even care about the money. But understand I'm gonna go down to B.C.C.C. in a few days and find out if you're enrolled. And if you are, I'm gonna say, 'Great. Duquan can come past with his certificate when he gets it and we're still friends. And he can still rely on me.' But if you aren't enrolled, then... well, I imagine I'm not gonna see you again, am I?
TV Show: The Wire
Gus: You ever notice that the guys who do that, the Blairs, the Glasses, the Kelleys, they all start with something small, you know. Just a little quote that they clean up. And then it's a whole anecdote. And pretty soon, they're seeing some amazing shit. They're the lucky ones who just happen to be standing on the right street corner in Tel Aviv when the pizza joint blows up and the human head rolls down the street with the eyes still blinking!
Klebanow: The pictures were sent to him. The police have confirmed...
Gus: It always starts with something true, something confirmed.
Klebanow: The pictures were sent to him. The police have confirmed...
Gus: It always starts with something true, something confirmed.
TV Show: The Wire
Rawls: Down the road, when we settle on this, and we will settle on this, I don't expect any of you will ever see another hour of O.T. again. I don't expect any of you will be doing police work ever again. And the only reason this isn't before a grand jury right now is because our mayor can't live with that. Oh, yeah. The Mayor knows your name.
Daniels: So this is your last case. Work it.
Rawls: If you're half the detective you think you are, you'll put this one down fast and take us all off the hook. The longer this goes on, the worse the payback's gonna be.
Daniels: So this is your last case. Work it.
Rawls: If you're half the detective you think you are, you'll put this one down fast and take us all off the hook. The longer this goes on, the worse the payback's gonna be.
TV Show: The Wire
McNulty: You lying motherfucker, you're as full of shit as I am. And you've got to live with it and play it out as far as it goes, right? Trapped in the same lie. Only difference is, I know why I did it. But fuck if I can figure out what it gets you in the end. But, hey, I'm not part of your tribe.
Templeton: You're not serious?
McNulty: No, no, I'm a fucking joke. And so are you.
Templeton: You're not serious?
McNulty: No, no, I'm a fucking joke. And so are you.
TV Show: The Wire
Landsman: [At McNulty's "wake"] He was natural po-lice. Yes, he was. And I don't say that about many people. Even when they're out here on the felt. I don't give that one up unless it happens to be true. Natural po-lice. ... [pretends to choke up] ... But, Christ, what an asshole!
...
Landsman: Jimmy, I say this seriously. If I was laying there dead on some Baltimore street corner, I'd want you standing over me, catching the case. Because, brother, when you were good, you were the best we had.
Bunk: Shit, if you were lying there dead on some corner, it probably was Jimmy that done ya.
...
Landsman: Jimmy, I say this seriously. If I was laying there dead on some Baltimore street corner, I'd want you standing over me, catching the case. Because, brother, when you were good, you were the best we had.
Bunk: Shit, if you were lying there dead on some corner, it probably was Jimmy that done ya.
TV Show: The Wire
Daniels: I'll swallow a lie when I have to; I've swallowed a few big ones lately. But the stat games? That lie? It's what ruined this department. Shining up shit and calling it gold so majors become colonels and mayors become governors. Pretending to do policework while one generation fucking trains the next how not to do the job. And then-[catches himself, and sighs] I looked Carcetti in the eye, I shook his hand, I asked him if he was for real. Well, this is the lie I can't live with.
TV Show: The Wire