The Gambler

Jim Bennett:
[after his mother says she doesn't want to lose another relative] Well whatever did happen to dad?

Jim Bennett:
You're born as a man with the nerves of a soldier, the apprehension of an angel

Jim Bennett:
I've been up two and a half million.

Frank:
What you got on you?

Jim Bennett:
Nothing.

Frank:
What you put away?

Jim Bennett:
Nothing.

Frank:
You get up two and a half million dollars, any a**hole in the world knows what to do: you get a house with a 25 year roof, an indestructible Jap-economy shitbox, you put the rest into the system at three to five percent to pay your taxes and that's your base, get me? That's your fortress of f***ing solitude. That puts you, for the rest of your life, at a level of f*** you. Somebody wants you to do something, f*** you. Boss pisses you off, f*** you! Own your house. Have a couple bucks in the bank. Don't drink. That's all I have to say to anybody on any social level. Did your grandfather take risks?

Jim Bennett:
Yes.

Frank:
I guarantee he did it from a position of f*** you. A wise man's life is based around f*** you. The United States of America is based on f*** you. You have a navy? Greatest army in the history of mankind? F*** you! Blow me. We'll f*** it up ourselves.

Jim Bennett:
There was a student... just the other day... who said that my problem, if one's nature is a problem, rather than just problematic, is that I see things in terms of victory or death, and not just victory but total victory. And it's true: I always have. It's either victory, or don't bother. The only thing worth doing is the impossible. Everything else is gray. You're born... as a man... with the nerves of a soldier, the apprehension of an angel, to lift a phrase, but there is no use for it. Here? Where's the use for it? You're set up to be a philosopher or a king or Shakespeare, and this is all they give you? This? Twenty- odd years of school which is all instruction in how to be ordinary... or they'll f***ing kill you, they f***ing will, and then it's a career, which is not the same thing as existence... I want unlimited things. I want everything. A real love. A real house. A real thing to do... every day. I'd rather die if I don't get it. Did I just say that out loud?

Neville Baraka:
What about your family?

Jim Bennett:
I got all I could get.

Neville Baraka:
Can I get the money from them? If I send you to Mexico, you know, 'Oh my God! I don't know what happened to him!' Get my friend Valario to mail 'em your dick.

Jim Bennett:
My family don't make the money because they pay up easily.

Neville Baraka:
Apparently that's genetic.