The Wire

Det. William Moreland:
You seem awfully happy today.

Det. Ray Cole:
I got laid last night.

Det. William Moreland:
Oh yeah? Your a**hole still hurt?

Moreland:
I'm just a humble motherf***er with a big-ass dick.

Freamon:
You give yourself too much credit.

Moreland:
Okay then. I ain't that humble.

Dennis 'Cutty' Wise:
The game done changed...

Slim Charles:
Game's the same, just got more fierce.

Avon Barksdale:
I ain't no suit-wearin' businessman like you... you know I'm just a gangsta I suppose...

Det. William Moreland:
Boy, them Greeks and those twisted-ass names.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Man, lay off the Greeks. They invented civilization.

Det. William Moreland:
Yeah? Ass-f***ing, too.

Brother Mouzone:
I see you favor a .45.

Omar:
At night I do. And I keeps one in the chamber in case you ponderin'.

[repeated line]

Omar:
All in the game yo, all in the game.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
All those mopes in bracelets and not one of them named Osama.

Freamon:
A life, Jimmy, you know what that is? It's the sh*t that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
[during interrogation] No name, huh? Well, for now, we'll just call you Boris.

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
[sighs] Boris. Why always Boris?

Det. William Moreland:
[repeated line to McNulty] Happy now, b*tch?

[repeated line]

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
SHIIIIIT

[repeated line]

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
What the f*** did I do?

Lt. Dennis Mello:
[repeated line at end of role call] Don't get captured!

Det. Lester Freamon:
We could still go to jail. And if not, I'd expect to be back in the pawn shop unit and you, my brother, are gonna ride the boat.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
So what? It was worth it. [pause] Wasn't it?

Det. Lester Freamon:
Depends.

Sgt. Ellis Carver:
They said you're leaving for family reasons.

Dep. Comm. for Operations Cedric Daniels:
Guess I got some kids somewhere I don't even know about.

City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes:
Whiting, Klebanow, Templeton... They snatch a Pulitzer or two, and they are up and gone from this place. For them, that's what this is all about. Me? I'm too f***in' simple-minded for that.

Slim Charles:
[during a New Day Co-Op meeting] Milton came with six hundred, and Little Glen is in for three.

Clinton 'Shorty' Buise:
I got five from me, and I got five from Chinaman to cover.

Slim Charles:
We still short nine hundred.

Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff:
I can go that, no thing.

Ricardo 'Fat Face Rick' Hendrix:
What? Muthaf***a, where you get that kinda scratch?

Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff:
You don't think Cheese know this here game? We sellin' dope and coke in Baltimore, nigga. Any of y'all ain't got that kinda money need be ashamed.

Clinton 'Shorty' Buise:
You're still puttin' up more than your share with that.

Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff:
The way I look at it, we all gonna more than paid once we own the connect, so...

Ricardo 'Fat Face Rick' Hendrix:
Sh*t, nigga, we was good when ya uncle had it. You had to go ahead and put up with Marlo - [Cheese abruptly draws his gun and sticks it in Rick's face]

Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff:
See that? See now, that's just the wrong way to look at it. 'Cause Joe had his time, and Omar put an end to that. Then Marlo had his time, short as it was, and the police put an end to that. And now, muthaf***a, it's OUR time. Mines and yours. But instead of just shuttin' up and kickin' in, you gonna stand there cryin' that "back in the day" sh*t.

Ricardo 'Fat Face Rick' Hendrix:
Cheese...

Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff:
There ain't no "back in the day," nigga! Ain't no nostalgia to this sh*t here! There's just the street, and the game, and what happen here today.

Ricardo 'Fat Face Rick' Hendrix:
You right. [Cheese lowers his gun]

Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff:
When it was my uncle, I was with my uncle. When it was Marlo, I was with him. But now, nigga - [Slim suddenly draws his gun and shoots Cheese in the head, killing him instantly. Everyone stares in shock as Cheese's body twitches on the ground]

Clinton 'Shorty' Buise:
What the f*** you do that for? Now we short the nine!

Slim Charles:
That was for Joe. [he walks away]

Clinton 'Shorty' Buise:
[to Rick, jerking his thumb at Slim] This sentimental muthaf***a just cost us money.

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
He gave us thirteen years on the line. Not enough for a pension, but enough for us to know that he was, despite his negligible irish ancestry, his defects of personality and his inconstant sobriety and hygiene, a true murder police. Jimmy, I say this seriously. If I was laying there dead on some Baltimore street corner, I'd want it to be you standing over me, catching the case. Because, brother, when you were good, you were the best we had.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
You turning the world upside down with your bullshit. How are you not in jail?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I don't know. The lie's so big, people can live with it, I guess.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Jesus f***ing Christ, Jimmy. I told you. I f***in' told you it was gonna come to this. You played with fire, didn't you? And now we're all getting burned.

Walon:
He's just putting it all out there, you know, the good and the bad.

Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins:
You know what? The bad don't bother me to have out there. Sh*t, I know the bad. I ain't lying to no one about the bad.

Walon:
Scared of somebody calling you good?

Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins:
A lot of folks volunteer places. A lot of folks share at meetings. Plenty of motherf***ers wake up every day and not get high. Man making me sound special for doing what the f*** I need to be doing.

[last line of the series]

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Let's go home.

Marla Daniels:
The tree that doesn't bend, breaks, Cedric.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
Bend too far, you're already broken.

Vinson:
[Michael is robbing Vinson] Sh*t. You're just a boy.

Michael Lee:
[shoots Vinson's knee] That's just your knee.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
And you know why I can tell you all this? Because, you lyin' motherf***er, you're as full of sh*t as I am. And you gotta live with it and play it out for as long as it goes, right? Trapped in the same lie. Only difference is I know why I did it. But f*** if I can figure out what it gets you, in the end. But, hey, I ain't part of your tribe.

Scott Templeton:
You're not serious. You...

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
[interrupting] No. No, I'm a f***ing joke. And so are you. Now get the f*** out of here.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Sh*t is like a war, ain't it. Easy to get in, hell to get out.

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
Omar to one side holding a spade, and maybe Marlo to the other with a shovel, and just at this moment, I manage to crawl out my own damn grave. No way do I crawl back in.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
At all hazards, a man must keep up appearances. Dignity, I say. Dignity above all, Governor. Hear, hear!

Det. Lester Freamon:
This is a tomb. Lex is in there.

Sgt. Ellis Carver:
Both Olsen twins. Ashley. Kate...

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
Mary Kate. And, yeah, I admire their body of work.

Sgt. Ellis Carver:
They're yours. All you gotta do is name a guy.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
[thinking] I'm not catchin', I'm pitchin'.

Sgt. Ellis Carver:
No problem.

Maj. Stanislaus 'Stan' Valchek:
So, what's my role in your little drama?

Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' J. Carcetti:
I thought you might broker a meeting, you know... help your fearless leader see the light about his new friend on the council.

Maj. Stanislaus 'Stan' Valchek:
And I should tell him, what? Make nice or invest heavily in petroleum jelly?

Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' J. Carcetti:
Hey. His ass, his choice.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
I don't know. Men of color usually don't do themselves. I mean, take me, for instance.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Yeah, I mean, you got all the reason in the world.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
And yet here I am, still standing.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Give or take.

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
You know what I was thinking? That tonight's a good night. Why? Because my shot cop didn't die. Then it hit me. This is what makes a good night on my watch. Absence of a negative.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
Hey. Yo!

Justin:
Huh?

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
'me axe you a question. Where do you guys get those hats with the bills over the ears like that? I go into all the city stores and the only ones I can find are the ones with the bills in the front.

Justin:
Na, it's the same. Just turn it sideways on ya head.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
Thanks. Thank you

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
So Cheese. Who's your dog?

Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff:
Huh. You my dog. [air kisses Bunk]

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Heh heh heh, I just want to know who's your dog. Dog.

Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff:
What's this, some psychology? Huh? Yeah, OK, uhh... "Yo please, stop, stop! I'll tell you everything I know."

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
C'mon Cheese! [shows Cheese some photos of murder victims] Who's your dog?

Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff:
Oh hell no! Y'all a'int layin' no bodies on me man. Lawyer time!

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
If the man comin', make ready for the man.

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
There's never been a paper bag for drugs. Until now.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
He's saying that the past is always with us, and where we come from, what we go through, how we go through it, all this sh*t matters. I mean, that's what I thought he meant.

Book Group Leader:
Go ahead.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Like at the end of the book, you know, boats and tides and all. It's like you can change up, right, you can say you somebody new, you can give yourself a whole new story. But, what came first is who you really are and what happened before is what really happened. And it don't matter that some fool say he different cuz the only thing that make you different is what you really do, what you really go through. Like, ya know, like all them books in his library. He frontin with all them books, but if you pull one down off the shelf, ain't none of the pages ever been opened. He got all them books, and he ain't read near one of 'em. Gatsby, he was who he was, and he did what he did. And cuz he wasn't ready to get real with the story, that sh*t caught up to him. I think, anyway.

Omar Little:
That wasn't no attempt murder.

Maurice 'Maury' Levy:
What was it, Mr. Little?

Omar Little:
I shot the boy Mike-Mike in his hind parts, that all. [Jury laughs] Fixed it up so he couldn't sit right. [Judge chuckles]

Maurice 'Maury' Levy:
Why'd you shoot Mike-Mike in his, um, hind parts, Mr. Little?

Omar Little:
Let's say we had a disagreement.

Maurice 'Maury' Levy:
A disagreement over?

Omar Little:
Well, you see, Mike-Mike thought he should keep that cocaine he was slingin' and the money he was makin' from slingin' it. I thought otherwise.

Maurice 'Maury' Levy:
Why should we believe your testimony then? Why believe anything you say?

Omar Little:
That's up to y'all, really.

Maurice 'Maury' Levy:
You are amoral, are you not? You are feeding off the violence and the despair of the drug trade. You are stealing from those who themselves are stealing the lifeblood from our city. You are a parasite who leeches off...

Omar:
Just like you, man.

Maurice 'Maury' Levy:
...the culture of drugs. Excuse me? What?

Omar:
I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase. It's all in the game though, right?

State's Atty. Ilene Nathan:
And what is your occupation?

Omar Little:
Occupation?

State's Atty. Ilene Nathan:
What exactly do you do for a living, Mr. Little?

Omar Little:
I rip and run.

State's Atty. Ilene Nathan:
You...?

Omar Little:
I robs drug dealers!

[Jury laughs]

State's Atty. Ilene Nathan:
Mr. Little, how does a man rob drug dealers for eight or nine years and live to tell about it?

Omar:
[slight pause, slight shrug] Day at a time, I s'pose.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
[quote after opening credits] It don't matter that some fool say he different...

[Sergei warns Nick outside Prop Joe's shop before their meeting]

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
Talk when I say. Not before. [they walk in; Sergei spreads his arms when he sees Joe] Tovarich.

Proposition Joe Stewart:
Sergei. My nigga. [he laughs, and they embrace]

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
You're losing weight.

Proposition Joe Stewart:
Sheeeit!

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
You're down to nothing. In this country, supermarkets are cathedrals. I worry for you, buddy.

Proposition Joe Stewart:
How your peoples, dawg?

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
Same. Good.

Proposition Joe Stewart:
Hey, you talk to the man about that other thing, right? 'Cause I can get behind that bidness in a big way.

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
We'll talk. Later. Now, another business.

Proposition Joe Stewart:
Right, right. This the man with the raggedy-ass Camaro.

Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka:
Wasn't mine, it was my cousin's. Wasn't all that raggedy. [Sergei gives Nick a disapproving look, then turns to Joe]

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
Sorry. Nicky is with us. His cousin... [he rolls his eyes and shakes his head, then shrugs]... but family cannot be helped.

Proposition Joe Stewart:
Who you tellin'? I got muthaf***in' nephews and in-laws f***in' all my sh*t up all the time, and it ain't like I can pop a cap in they ass and not hear about it Thanksgivin' time. For real, I'm livin' life with some burdensome niggas. [he turns to Nick] So what the f***? [Sergei motions for Nick to sit; he does] You ain't pay my boy Cheese, and Cheese ain't payin' me, right? Now I ain't talkin' 'bout all the money in the world, but it ain't like Cheese be in a position out on that corner to let ya cuz exemplify sh*t, you feel? The man cut you some slack, and soon every f***in'-up white boy be on his titty.

Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka:
We wanna pay what we owe. Twenty-seven, anyway. And we're gonna have it soon enough.

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
Your man doubled it, though.

Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka:
He also burned the car. Now, the Blue Book on that Camaro is fifty-one.

Proposition Joe Stewart:
[in disbelief] Now, let me understand. You gonna come up in here havin' f***ed up a package, askin' me to tell Cheese, who you f***ed it up on, to pay you out twenty-four hundred dollars?

Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka:
He gets to keep the Camaro.

Proposition Joe Stewart:
[to Sergei] Just how good a friend is this muthaf***a to y'all? [Sergei shrugs. Joe motions to one of his men, who counts out a stack of bills; Joe passes the money to Nick] The Cheese ain't gonna be happy havin' to pay me back, so I would advise y'all to give him some distance.

Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka:
Just so he don't come back on my cousin. [Sergei motions him out] Anyway... thanks for bein' straight on this.

Proposition Joe Stewart:
Fool, if it wasn't for Sergei here, you and ya cuz both would be cadaverous muthaf***as.

Prosecutor:
Mr. Little, how does a man rob drug dealers for eight or nine years, and live to tell about it?

Omar:
Day at a time, I suppose.

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
I admit I've made some mistakes, Burrell being one of the biggest. But he's got a job for about 10 more days. After the primary, he's gone believe me. And that last stunt - pulling a detective.

State Delegate Odell Watkins:
What'd you expect?

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
Not that, huh-uh. Hey, I had nothing to do with that nonsense.

State Delegate Odell Watkins:
Now that's a straight-up lie. I was at that damn meeting when you told him "Slow the case down.".

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
I didn't mean...

State Delegate Odell Watkins:
Who the hell knows what you mean anymore Clarence? Look at this. [hands Clarence two campaign flyers] Look at it! You gave me your word on this. Your *word* Clarence! But here you are ticketed up with Eunetta in her best precincts and then ticketed up with my girl Daniels where she's running strong.

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
Odell, this is the first I've seen this. C'mon now! This is probably Eunetta's people pulling this sh*t.

State Delegate Odell Watkins:
With a "Citizens for Royce" authority line? Eh, look at you Clarence. Just look at you. You've forgotten your agenda. You've forgotten your base! You think a shave and some Marcus Garvey posters are gonna get you over? Do you think that's gonna make up for jumping in bed with every damn developer? Sh*t. You're even on Clay Davis's tit.

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
Now don't you go getting all self-righteous with me Odell. Campaigns run on dollars - you know it.

State Delegate Odell Watkins:
Whose dollars? Those sons of b*tches you got around your card table every month feeding your kitty? Oh yeah, I know about that too. You... trouble with you - f*** you, Clarence. I'm gonna sit what's left of this one out. I'm gonna sit it out!

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
Sit it out. The primary?

State Delegate Odell Watkins:
Sit it out! [Odell starts to leave]

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
Odell! ODELL! Who the hell do you think you are huh? Come November, I'm still gonna be the only game in town! Odell, turn your back on me now, I won't forget it!

Chief of Staff Coleman Parker:
We can't afford this! We need his organization on Tuesday, go after him!

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
F*** that holier than thou motherf***er!

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Can I get a Jameson?

Bartender:
Bushmills OK?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
That's Protestant whiskey.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
Damn boy, you smell like sex. Take a f***ing shower.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Late for work.

Sgt. Ellis Carver:
[to drug dealers] This sh*t is like unemployment insurance. Every employer gotta pay in. If I find out anyone been holding out, then he's out of here back on the street getting his head busted. The least y'all can do is look out for your own people a little bit.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
What are you, a f***in' communist?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
The bosses don't know, huh?

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
F*** the bosses.

Butchie:
Conscience do cost.

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski:
What if they're not sneaking anything off this time? What then?

Det. Lester Freamon:
Ah then, tragically, you will have wasted yet another day in a life you've already misspent in the service of the City of Baltimore.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Now look. We all got roles to play.

Det. Lester Freamon:
What's your role?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
I'm just a humble motherf***er with a big-ass dick.

Det. Lester Freamon:
You give yourself too much credit.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
OK, then. I ain't all that humble.

Sgt. Ellis Carver:
[about Herc, modeling sunglasses] His name is Head. Dick Head.

Thomas 'Horseface' Pakusa:
Don't worry, kid. You're still on the clock.

Elena McNulty:
I can care about you, and I can want us to be friends. And if you give me enough time, Jimmy, maybe I will actually want you to be happy. But how the hell am I supposed to trust you?

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
You know what I love? The mind that's always a step ahead of me. The person who never stops thinking it through. That's what I fell in love with first.

Marla Daniels:
You know what I fell in love with first? Do you? Your ambition. Where did that man go?

FBI Spec. Agent Terrence 'Fitz' Fitzhugh:
State your name.

[Serge says nothing]

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
No name, huh? Well, for now, we'll just call you Boris.

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
Boris. Why always Boris?

Frank Sobotka:
You're more like me than you know. You're a Sobotka.

Chester 'Ziggy' Sobotka:
[crying] F***ed is what I am.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Boy, them Greeks and those twisted-ass names.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Man, lay off the Greeks. They invented civilization.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Yeah? Ass-f***ing, too.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
[on detail] A different look for our boy.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Yeah, Perry Ellis, or something.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Now, how would a just-rolled-out-of-bed-looking motherf***er like you, know the designer?

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
[pauses] Okay, I'm guessing.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
It's a Joseph Abboud. He puts dark buttons instead of brass on his blazers. That's the Abboud signature.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
You know what they call a guy who pays that much attention to his clothes, don't you?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
A grown-up.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
[McNulty has trouble loading up the camera] Maybe you ought to set up an easel on the sidewalk and do a sketch instead.

Frank Sobotka:
You know what the trouble is, Brucey? We used to make sh*t in this country, build sh*t. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket.

The Greek:
You should have had a son.

Spiros 'Vondas' Vondopoulos:
But then I would have had a wife.

Maj. Stanislaus Valchek:
Big man on the docks. You don't look so big now, do you?

Frank Sobotka:
For 25 years we've been dying slow down there. Dry docks rusting and piers standing empty. My friends and their kids like we got the cancer. No life line got thrown all that time. Nothing from nobody. And now you want to help us? Help me?

Frank Sobotka:
Not now. I need to get clean.

Omar Little:
About a year ago a boy named Brandon got got here in Baltimore. Stuck and burned before he passed.

Brother Mouzone:
The game is the game.

Omar Little:
Indeed. But see, that boy was beautiful. Wasn't no need for you to do him the way y'all did. You feel me?

Brother Mouzone:
A year, you say?

Omar Little:
About that.

Brother Mouzone:
You got some wrong information.

Omar Little:
Man, you lyin' to live.

Brother Mouzone:
I'm at peace with my god. Do what you will.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
[after Council President Nareese Campbell walks by] Council President's hot as balls!

Security Detail Officer:
I'd f*** you to f*** her.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
You don't think that means your a fag or nothin.

Security Detail Officer:
It's just an expression.

Off. Michael Santangelo:
[to speaker of Western District's briefing on counter-terrorism] No disrespect to your appendix, but if them terrorists do f*** up the Western, could anybody even tell? [All the other officers laugh]

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
The hell with Norris. You my real partner, Lester. My life partner.

Det. Lester Freamon:
Don't tease, b*tch.

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
God... damn.

Hardware Store Employee:
I see you got the Dewalt cordless. Your nailgun, Dewalt 410.

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
Yeah. The trouble is, you leave it in a truck for a while, need to step up and use the b*tch, the battery don't hold up, you know?

Hardware Store Employee:
Yeah, cordless'll do that. You might want to consider the powder-actuated tool. The Hilti DX 460 MX or the Simpson PTP. These two are my cadillacs. Everything else on this board is second best, sorry to say. Are you contracting, or just doing some work around the house?

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
No, we work all over.

Hardware Store Employee:
Full time?

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
No, we had about 5 jobs last month.

Hardware Store Employee:
At that rate, the cost of the powder-actuated guns justifies itself.

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
You say power?

Hardware Store Employee:
Powder.

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
Like gunpowder?

Hardware Store Employee:
Yeah. The DX 460 is fully automatic, with a .27 caliber charge. Wood, concrete, steel to steel... She'll throw a fastener into anything, and for my money, she handles recoil better than the Simpson or the P3500. Now, you understand what I mean by recoil ?

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
Yeah, the kickback. I'm with you.

Hardware Store Employee:
That's right.

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
.27 caliber, huh?

Hardware Store Employee:
Yeah, not large ballistically, but for driving nails, it's enough. Any more than that, you'd add to the recoil.

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
Man, sh*t. I seen a tiny-ass .22 round-nose drop a n*gger plenty of days, man. Motherf***ers get up in you like a pinball, rip your ass up. Big joints, though... Big joints, man, just break your bones, you say, "f*** it." I'm gonna go with this right here, man. How much do I owe you?

Hardware Store Employee:
Six-sixty-nine plus tax. [Snoop counts out a stack of cash] No, no, you just pay at the register.

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
Nah, man, you go ahead and handle that for me, man. And keep the rest for your time.

Hardware Store Employee:
This is $800.

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
So what, man? You earned that buck like a motherf***er, man. Keep that sh*t.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
[to Burrell] If you'd wanted to do me, I'd already be done. But there ain't nothing you fear more than a bad headline, is there? You'd rather live in sh*t than let the world see you work a shovel.

Wallace:
Sh*t, if it ain't up in the West Side, I don't know sh*t.

Wallace:
[pointing to the neighborhood] Coz this sh*t? This is me, yo, right here.

Freamon:
Ain't none of y'all ever been in the military? How do you learn a thirty-inch quick time?

[Nobody speaks]

Freamon:
Draft dodging peace freaks, huh?

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Where's Wallace at? Where's the boy, String?

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
D'Angelo, shut your mouth.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Where's Wallace? That's all I wanna know. Where the f*** is Wallace? Huh? String? String? Look at me. Look at me! Where the f*** is Wallace? Huh? I don't want this Payless wearing motherf***er representing me! Imma get my own man. Alright? So just get back in your car, and the get f*** down south.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
Alright you stupid motherf***er. You made this decision.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Yeah, I made my decision. Where's Wallace at? Where the f*** is Wallace? Where's Wallace, String? String! Where the f*** is Wallace? Huh? Stringer!

Det. Ellis Carver:
Word comes down this morning. We're supposed to ride past your union hall twice a day and paper the cars. [i.e. put tickets on them]

Frank Sobotka:
You work for a gaping a**hole!

Det. Ellis Carver:
More than one, actually.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
[quote at end of opening credits] They can chew you up, but then they gotta spit you out.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
You're not the run-of-the-mill kind of a**hole, are you, Jimmy? You're a special kind of a**hole.

DA Pearlman:
What's the worst thing on a woman? A drunken Irishman.

Dep. Comm.:
What's this Sobotka to you?

Maj. Stanislaus 'Stan' Valchek:
He's an a**hole.

Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
You know, we giving them a fine education. "It ain't even mine. It was just laying here when I came in." You know, this right here, the whole damn school, the way they carry themselves, it's training for the street. The building's the system. We the cops.

Zenobia Dawson:
Yeah. You are. For sure.

Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
Well, y'all, y'all come in here every day and practice getting over. Try running all different kind of games. It's practice for the corner, right? Ain't no real cops, ain't no real danger. But y'all _are_ getting something out of this. Betcha didn't even know that.

Phone Call:
[phone rings] Baltimore City Police Department.

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
Yes, ma'am, this is Sydney Handjerker with Handjerker, Cohen & Bromburg. I'm trying to locate a Sergeant Thomas Hauk in regards to a client I am representing.

Phone Call:
Hold, please.

Phone Call:
Mayor's office, Lieutenant Hoskins.

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
Yes, hello. This is Ervin Pepper of Pepper, Pepper & Bayleaf. I'm calling in regards to a Sergeant Thomas Hauk in regards to a...

Phone Call:
He's no longer on this detail. Hold on for a minute.

Phone Call:
Major Crimes. May I help you?

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
This is Dr. Jay calling with test results for Thomas Hauk.

Phone Call:
He's on the street.

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
...*hangs up*

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
[Chris tosses Snoop's nail gun into the harbor] Yo you owe me eight hundred on that, b*tch. You owe!

Zenobia Dawson:
[quote after opening credits] We got our thing, but it's just part of the big thing.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
[types in "Peanut" in database] 89? And that's just the ones with Westside addresses.

Det. Vernon Holley:
Man, you got to narrow that sh*t down. Find some way to work with all them "Peanuts."

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Motherf***er, do I look like George Washington Carver?

Stringer Bell:
That's good. That's like a 40-degree day. Ain't nobody got nothing to say about a 40-degree day. Fifty. Bring a smile to your face. Sixty, sh*t, niggas is damn near barbecuing on that motherf***er. Go down to 20, niggas get their b*tch on. Get their blood complaining. But forty? Nobody give a f*** about 40. Nobody remember 40, and y'all niggas is giving me way too many 40-degree days! What the f***?

Sapper:
[a few minutes later when Stringer is done talking] We on that sh*t like a Forty Degree Day!

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
Wanna know what kills more police than bullets and liquor? Boredom. They just can't handle that sh*t. You keep it boring, String. You keep it dead f***ing boring.

Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell:
Anyone else having trouble with the writing on the wall?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
So that's the cop shooter?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Yeah, not much to it. But he did that job on the Dozerman kid last week. Gave it up on a full statement.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Before or after you knocked the sh*t out of him?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
So what do you think?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
I think this is a tragic motherf***ing miscarriage of justice. I think it deserves a special grand jury, and if not, the President should appoint an independent prosecutor. Oh, no no, no no, actually, I think Kofi Bryant and the United f***ing Nations should get involved.

Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell:
I don't care how many years you have on this job. If the felony rate doesn't fall, *you* most certainly will. If the Gods are f***ing you, you find a way to f*** them back. It's Baltimore, gentlemen. The gods will not save you.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
It takes a whore to catch a whore.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
What the f*** did I do?

The Greek:
It's a new world, Frank. You should go out and spend some of the money on something you can touch. New car, new coat... It's why we get up in the morning, huh?

Chester 'Ziggy' Sobotka:
How come they don't fly away?

Sean' 'Shamrock' 'McGinty:
We done gone so far from Baltimore, we're losing the station. Yo, try a Philly station or some sh*t like that.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
The radio in Philly is different?

Sean' 'Shamrock' 'McGinty:
Nigga, please. You gotta be f***ing with me right? You ain't never heard a radio station outside of Baltimore?

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
Yo man, I ain't never left Baltimore except that Boys Village sh*t one day, and I wasn't tryin' to hear no radio up in that b*tch.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
The Bunk can't swim. I ain't too good at floatin' either.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
F*** me. I still cannot type.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
If white boys wanna sell drugs in Baltimore, they have to make different laws for it, like even it out for 'em.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
Affirmative action.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
Leave no white man behind.

Frank Sobotka:
For your information I wake up every morning with an angry blue-veined diamond cutter. I was gonna enlighten the president of local 47 on this particular point and he chose to depart. Blue steel, gentlemen, 3 & 1/2 inches of hard blue steel.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
[Herc has been ranting about IID charges] Herc, What the f*** did you do exactly?

Sgt. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
I lost a surveillance camera that I took without my Lieutenant's permission and the evidence that I had found, I it attributed to a made up informant.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Son, They gonna beat on your White ass like it was a Rented Mule.

Chris Partlow:
You can look him in the eye now... no matter who he is or what he done you look him right in the eye.

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
All that from overnight?

Det. Ed Norris:
All that from Freamon. He's out early today, rooting through empties.

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
You know what he is? He is a vandal. He is vandalizing the board. He is vandalizing this unit. He is a Hun, a Visigoth, a barbarian at the gate, clamoring for noble Roman blood and what's left of our clearance rate.

Lt. Dennis Mello:
All right, listen up, you mutts, this is complicated. I mean, it isn't complicated if you went to college or, I don't know, your mothers actually stopped drinking for a minute while they was pregnant. But for Baltimore City Police, this is complicated.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
I been doing this a long time. I ain't never said nothing to no cop. [sighs] I feel old. I been out there since I was 13. I ain't never f***ed up a count, never stole off a package, never did some sh*t that I wasn't told to do. I been straight up. But what come back? Hmm? You'd think if I get jammed up on some sh*t they'd be like, "A'ight, yeah. Bodie been there. Bodie hang tough. We got his pay lawyer. We got a bail." They want me to stand with them, right? But where the f*** they at when they supposed to be standing by us? I mean, when sh*t goes bad and there's hell to pay, where they at? This game is rigged, man. We like the little b*tches on a chessboard.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Pawns.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
You're a soldier, Bodie.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
Hell yeah.

Avon Barksdale:
Yo ref, yo ref, yo ref... what the f***? The boy was fouled, clear, straight up... how you going to not call that?

Referee:
Look, if you want I can put time back on the clock and replay it...

Avon Barksdale:
Are you talking about a do-over, baby? Are you talking about a f***ing do-over? That's not how the game is played. You can't do that! F***, can you believe this sh*t? This nigga talkin' about doin' it again!

Referee:
Look, I don't want any trouble, okay...

Proposition Joe Stewart:
Ain't going to be no trouble over no ball...

Avon Barksdale:
Man, you supposed to be the ref, right? Why don't you stand up for your f***in' self, you p*ssy! You can't just let any ol' motherf***ing nigga get in your face... understand? Now walk away. Walk away. Turn around and walk the f*** away... ignorant motherf***er.

Proposition Joe Stewart:
We cool?

Avon Barksdale:
Yeah, we cool baby, you tell your people to come up here to the park Saturday at noon. Of course, you come on the West Side again, without a ball, I'm a light your ass up.

Det. Lester Freamon:
You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money, and you don't know where the f*** it's gonna take you.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Well, you know what they say: "stupid criminals make stupid cops". I'm proud to be chasing this guy.

Det. Ellis Carver:
Where's everybody at?

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
Maybe the whole thing is over and no one bothered to tell us. Maybe we won.

Omar Little:
Hey, yo! Y'all need to open this door, man, before I huff and puff. C'mon, now, by the hairs of your chinny-chin-chin.

Terrell:
Omar, you best roll out. We up in here with a Mac-10.

Omar Little:
I thinks not, Terrell. I thinks not. Y'all might need to think this through and stop wasting my time. 'Cause Omar can come back tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day. And I will put a bullet in all y'all behind what happen right now, you heard? [a garbage bag is dropped from the window and Omar inspects the contents] Fair enough.

Det. Lester Freamon:
Seems that Stringer Bell is worse than a drug dealer . . .

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski:
He's a developer.

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
The truth is I can't promise you it's going to get any better. We can't lock up the thousands out there on the corners. There'd be no place to put them even if we could. We can show you charts and statistics like they mean something, but you're going back to your home tonight, we're going to be in our patrol cars and them boys still gonna be out there on the corners. Deep in the game. This is the world we got, people, and it's about time all of us had the good sense to at least admit that much.

Man at meeting:
So, what's the answer?

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
I'm not sure. But whatever it is, it can't be a lie.

Lt. Dennis Mello:
[looking at Greggs walking away] Man, I could murder that. If she wasn't...

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Particular?

Dennis 'Cutty' Wise:
The game done changed.

Slim Charles:
Game's the same, just got more fierce.

Fruit:
Look, we grind and y'all try to stop it. That's how we do. Why you got to go and f*** with the program?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
He's a boss. F*** the bosses.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
Yo, Rock.

Sean 'Shamrock' McGinty:
Huh?

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
Be subtle with it, man. [pauses] You know what subtle means?

Sean 'Shamrock' McGinty:
Laid back and sh*t.

Dep. Comm. for Operations William A. Rawls:
If they work for me, they need my OK. Good news is I got no problem with anyone on your list. Except McNulty. No McNulty. Nothing that even resembles the son-of-a-b*tch.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
That bad, huh?

Dep. Comm. for Operations William A. Rawls:
He quits or he drowns. That's the only two things getting him off the f***ing boat so help me God.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
[quote after opening credits] If I hear the music, I'm gonna dance.

Nick Sobotka:
Every morning I ask myself, is today the day I drive down to Fort Armistead and stare out at the harbor? No, I figure eventually, if I mind my own business, uncle Frank will call and wake my ass up at 7 in the goddamn morning and get my ass down there for some mysterious f***ing reason. So hey.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
You ain't gonna play that country sh*t, right? I hate that country sh*t.

Frank Sobotka:
[denying any knowledge of the dead girls] I have a wife! I have daughters! I don't like what you're thinking!

Omar:
It ain't what you takin', it's who you takin' from, ya feel me? How you expect to run with the wolves come night when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?

Omar Little:
Shoot, the way y'all looking at things, ain't no victim to even speak on.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Bullshit, boy. No victim? I just came from Tosha's people, remember? All this death, you don't think it ripples out? You don't even know what the f*** I'm talking about. I was a few years ahead of you at Edmondson, but I know you remember the neighborhood, how it was. We had some bad boys, for real. Wasn't about guns so much as knowing what to do with your hands. Those boys could really rack. My father had me on the straight, but like any young man, I wanted to be hard too, so I'd turn up at all the house parties where the tough boys hung. Sh*t, they knew I wasn't one of them. Them hard cases would come up to me and say, "Go home, schoolboy, you don't belong here." Didn't realize at the time what they were doing for me. As rough as that neighborhood could be, we had us a community. Nobody, no victim, who didn't matter. And now all we got is bodies, and predatory motherf***ers like you. And out where that girl fell, I saw kids acting like Omar, calling you by name, glorifying your ass. Makes me sick, motherf***er, how far we done fell.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
Twenty-five gets me the permits?

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
Mm-mmm. Twenty gets you the permits. Five is for me for bribing these downtown motherf***ers. I mean, I'm the one got to risk walking up to these thieving b*tches with cash in hand, right? I'm telling you, String, the people running the city nowadays, they make the last bunch look sanctified. I mean, this some shameful sh*t.

Avon Barksdale:
How many corners do we need? How much money can a n*gger make?

Avon Barksdale:
More than a n*gger can spend.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
And then we ain't gonna be around to spend what we done made already.

Avon Barksdale:
Sh*t, I ain't think I was gonna be around this long.

Avon Barksdale:
Yeah, I ain't no suit-wearin' businessman like you. You know I'm just a gangsta, I suppose. And I want my corners.

Avon Barksdale:
The game is the f***in' game. Period.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
Same as it ever was.

Dennis 'Cutty' Wise:
The game ain't in me no more. None of it.

Avon Barksdale:
But you ain't done sh*t else, you know what I'm sayin'? So what you gonna do?

Dennis 'Cutty' Wise:
I don't know. But it can't be this.

Chinese Seaman:
[Speaking foreign language]

Moreland:
Hey, hey.

Chinese Seaman:
...English.

Middle Eastern Seaman:
No English.

Eastern European Seaman:
...English.

Arab Seaman:
English...

Moreland:
Kunta kinte, yabbdabba dabba do.

African Seaman:
Huh...?

Freamon:
Hah mishy gishy gushy gushy mishy meshy mushy, motherf***er.

African Seaman:
Eh?

Freamon:
Eh! Negro, you can not travel half way around the world and not speak any motherf***in' English.

African Seaman:
[Speaking foreign language]

Freamon:
English, motherf***er!

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
While back, I took a stroll through the pit. I saw that kid we got running things down there, uh, Poot. Now, he got the cell phone I gave him for the business, right there on his hip. But, the nigga got another cell phone that only rang when the p*ssy called. Now, if this no-count nigga got two cell phones, how the f*** you gonna sell any more of them motherf***ers? That's market saturation.

Omar Little:
Look, Dante, what's it gonna take for you to be convinced, man? I don't bag no babies. [pauses] Huh?

Dante:
What you think? [Omar and Dante start making out]

Dante:
You gonna have to do better than that.

Omar Little:
Oh, indeed.

Det. Lester Freamon:
What did he call Cole?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Collateral damage.

Det. Lester Freamon:
I'm feelin' pretty damn collateral myself, I gotta say.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
You got yourself a hell of a case.

Moreland:
F*** you very much.

Off. Beatrice 'Beadie' Russell:
[quote after opening credits] What they need is a union.

Omar Little:
Spread the word, darlin'. Omar back.

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
[to Officer Russell] For you I would suggest some pantsuits, perhaps muted in color, something to offset Detective Moreland's pinstripe lawyerly affectations and the brash tweedy impertinence of Detective Freamon. Rawls is watching on this one, let's at least pretend we got a f***ing clue.

Freamon:
Tweedy impertinence? I like that.

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
So now you come over East Side and expect me to hide you. Why is it that every Baltimore n*gger think that running the f*** away means crossing downtown? Sh*t, you should be in New York or Philly or some sh*t.

Roland 'Prezbo' Pryzbylewski:
I don't get it. All this so we score higher on the state tests? If we're teaching the kids the test questions, what is it assessing in them?

Grace Sampson:
Nothing. It assesses us. The test scores go up, they can say the schools are improving. The scores stay down, they can't.

Roland 'Prezbo' Pryzbylewski:
Juking the stats.

Grace Sampson:
Excuse me?

Roland 'Prezbo' Pryzbylewski:
Making robberies into larcenies. Making rapes disappear. You juke the stats, and majors become colonels. I've been here before.

Grace Sampson:
Wherever you go, there you are.

Duquan 'Dukie' Weems:
You remember that one day, summer past? When we threw them piss balloons at them Terrace boys? You remember, just before school started up again? You know, I took a beatdown from them boys. I don't even throw a shadow on it. That was a day. Y'all bought me ice cream off the truck. You remember, Mike?

Michael Lee:
[long pause] I don't.

'Monk' Metcalf:
Boy been throwing up all kind of backtalk about sh*t. Buck wild about this and that.

Marlo Stanfield:
Like what?

'Monk' Metcalf:
Crying about how Junebug and his people got lit up. Crying about how Omar on the street running his mouth, calling for you to step to.

Marlo Stanfield:
Omar say what?

Chris Partlow:
Nothing. [pause] Omar tried calling you out by name, but sh*t, no one --

Marlo Stanfield:
What he say about me?

Chris Partlow:
Nothing, man. Just talking sh*t.

Marlo Stanfield:
He used my name? In the street? [pause] Talk, motherf***er!

'Monk' Metcalf:
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 f*** you know about what I need on my mind, motherf***er? My name was on the street? When we bounce from this sh*t 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 motherf***er -- Omar, Barksdale, whoever. My name is my name!

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
From everything we've given you, fire should be shooting out your ass. But no, there you sit like a genital wart.

Det. Lester Freamon:
Drink with me, Jimmy! This is what you wanted, man!

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Then why do I feel like sh*t?

Det. Lester Freamon:
Postpartum depression.

Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins:
My name is . . . my name is . . . Reginald. Round the way, they call me Bubbles. I'm a drug addict. Celebrating my anniversary. My people couldn't make it here tonight. I left a trail of fire behind me. Time going to make it right, I guess.

Reginald 'Bubbles' Cousins:
Ain't no shame in holding on to grief . . . as long as you make room for other things too.

Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson:
How my hair look, Mike?

Michael Lee:
Look good, girl.

[Mike shoots her]

Omar Little:
Lesson here, 'Bey: You come at the king, you best not miss...

Omar Little:
Look man, I do what I can do to help y'all. But the game is out there, and it's either play or get played.

Wallace's Little Brother:
Eight?

Wallace:
Damn Cyril look! Close your eyes. You workin' a ground stash. 20 tall pinks. Two fiends come up at you and ask for two each, another one cops three. Then Bodie hands you off ten more. But some white guy rolls up in a car, waves you down and pays for eight. How many vials you got left?

Wallace's Little Brother:
Fifteen?

Wallace:
How the f*** you able to keep the count right and you not be able to do the book problem then?

Wallace's Little Brother:
Count be wrong they f*** you up.

Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti:
You're holding me to a high standard! I mean, Moses - Jesus, Reverend...

Jen Carcetti:
Tommy!

Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti:
I'm sorry. I can't believe I said that.

Reverend:
[laughing] Moses will do for now. We'll save Jesus for your second term.

Dep. Comm. for Operations William A. Rawls:
[after telling Landsman to stall a murder investigation] American democracy. Let's show those Third World f***s how it's done.

Norman Wilson:
[quote after opening credits] Don't try this sh*t at home.

[Omar and Brother Mouzone have Stringer cornered, their guns turned on him]

Stringer Bell:
I ain't strapped. Look, man. I ain't involved. I ain't involved in that gangster bullshit no more.

[both gunmen are silent, Stringer is breathing hard from running]

Stringer Bell:
What y'all n*ggers want, man? Huh? Money?

[however, he just gets more silence]

Stringer Bell:
IS THAT IT? Cause if it is, man, I can be a better friend to y'all alive.

Omar:
You still don't get it, do you? This ain't about your money, bro. Your boy gave you up. That's right. And we ain't had to torture his ass neither!

[Stringer is silent, realizing that Omar now knows he had his lover Brandon tortured and killed. He then looks to Brother Mouzone, and with him there - realizes he now knows he tried to have him killed, and that both men have come for retribution]

Stringer Bell:
[regrettably] Seems like I can't say nothing to change y'all minds.

[long silence]

Stringer Bell:
Well, get on with it, motherfu...

[Omar and Mouzone shoot him to death]

Brother Mouzone:
Pull it slowly, then toss it.

Omar:
Oh, I will move slow. I ain't tossin' nothing, bow tie.

Brother Mouzone:
I suppose we could stand here all night.

Omar:
I s'pose we could. Or settle this once and forever.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
I don't care how you do it, but I need my wire today.

Stringer Bell:
We ain't gotta dream no more, man. We got real sh*t. Real estate we can touch.

Brother Mouzone:
Is there an alley entrance?

Omar:
Boarded up on both sides. We gonna have to go through the front.

Brother Mouzone:
That's a change for you, isn't it?

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
He's a cold motherf***er.

Malik 'Poot' Carr:
It's a cold world, Bodie.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
Thought you said it was getting warmer, man.

Malik 'Poot' Carr:
World going one way, people another.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
[to a patrolman who has given someone a ticket at the urging for more arrests] Baker, Let me let you in on a little secret, The patrolling officer on his beat is the one true dictatorship in America, we can lock a guy up on the humble, lock him up for real, or say f*** it and drink ourselves to death under the expressway and our side partners will cover us, No one - I mean no one - tells us how to waste our shift!

Det. Vernon Holley:
So you never got a look at either of the gunmen?

Andy Krawczyk:
[Krawcyzk is still scared from the shooting] I told you. I saw only the one of them. He was black. Big, I thought. With a large weapon.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
B.N.B.G.

Det. Vernon Holley:
[as Krawcyzk looks puzzled] Big Negro, Big Gun.

Slim Charles:
Don't matter who did what to who at this point. Fact is, we went to war, and now there ain't no going back. I mean, sh*t, it's what war is, you know? Once you in it, you in it. If it's a lie, then we fight on that lie. But we gotta fight.

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski:
"Failure to properly identify myself as a police officer." Sounds like what I was guilty of most of my career, actually.

Jimmy McNulty:
[McNulty sits on a windowsill, looking at Stringer's body. Bunk sits next to him and lights a cigar] I caught him, Bunk. On the wire, I caught him... And he doesn't f***in' know it.

Avon Barksdale:
F***ed up, man. Ay... y'all ask me y'all ugly ass niggas shouldn't be in here f***in' around with all these guns and sh*t...

Jimmy McNulty:
The things that make me right for this job, maybe they're the same things that make me wrong for everything else.

Squeak:
[nagging while they both are handcuffed] You've got to be the stupidest motherf***er I've ever dated.

Bernard:
[whispering to his neighbor on the other side] I can't wait to go to jail.

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski:
OK, on that burner? I called Trac, gave them the serial number. Trac Corporation told me they sent it to Northland, a purchasing corporation. Northland tells me they sent it to their distribution center in Hagerstown. Hagerstown tells me they sent it to Buddy's Mondo Mart at 1440 Propane Road, Falls Church, Va. That's where it went out into the street. [pause] What?

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
Did Buddy have them on display to the left or the right of the cash register?

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski:
How would I know that?

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
I'm going to bring you along, String, but it ain't going to be an overnight thing. We spend this year dealing with the city, the next doing business with the state. However, year three, then we go for the gold. Then we go federal. Then we see the man with his hand on the faucet.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
What faucet?

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
The hood faucet. The money faucet.

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
Look, it takes money to make money, String. Otherwise every pauper would be a king.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
And I'm sayin', I'm ready to run now.

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
Three years. Crawl, walk, and then run.

Deacon:
No offense, but you're like the blind man and the elephant. It's a lot bigger than what you got your hand on, you just can't see it.

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
See what?

Deacon:
A great village of pain, and you're the mayor. Where's your drinking water? Where's your toilets? Your heat, your electricity? Where's the needle truck? The condom distribution? The drug treatment intake? Half these people are dyin' on their feet, and the other half's gonna catch what's killin' them.

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
Look, they ain't no worse off when they was all over the map. Now they just in one place, is all.

Deacon:
And that place is hell.

Theresa D'Agostino:
Do you think politics is only about winning the argument? That whoever has the right fact at the right moment wins? Clinton had facts. Kennedy had facts, yeah. But Reagan? He couldn't have summoned a fact if his life depended on it.

Off. Anthony Colicchio:
You know what this is? It's moral midgetry. Turn the f***in' world upside down, treat these braindead corner yo's like princelings.

Sgt. Ellis Carver:
You see how clean the corners are? In every sector, street traffic is half what it was.

Off. Anthony Colicchio:
F*** that. It's wrong, and it's wrong.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I wonder what it feels like to work in a real police department!

Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
[spreading his lapels to show the lining of his suit] Here's our boy Thomas sporting the latest in downtown business wear: an understated ensemble that puts the "b" in subtle [the line sounds much better than it looks when it's typed out]

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
[quote after opening credits] The bigger the lie, the more they believe.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
You see Griggs out there, bagging evidence alone, then going back out there to recanvas on a triple? A triple f***ing murder! A home invasion, and she's working it alone. They pulled Crutchfield this morning, put him back on the rotation.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
That's on them! You can't come --

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
F***ing right, it's on them. A triple murder, and 12 hours later they leave one detective alone on it? I guess she's lucky she has a car!

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
This sh*t won't work.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Well, then we're no worse than before. Extra red name or two on the board.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Yeah, unless you got caught.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Who in this f***ing unit's going to catch me? Most of the guys up here couldn't catch the clap in a Mexican whorehouse.

Det. Michael Crutchfield:
Did he f*** you?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
He tried. But mostly he just f***s himself.

Det. Lester Freamon:
Sh*t like this actually goes through your f***ing brain?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
How long you been in the pawn shop unit?

Det. Lester Freamon:
Thirteen years and four months.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Thirteen years?

Det. Lester Freamon:
And four months.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I gotta ask you, what exactly does a police officer assigned to the pawn shop unit do?

Det. Lester Freamon:
You intake reports from registered pawn shops on all items valued over $50. Then you make an index card for that item. Then you file that index card. If someone wants to find out if something stolen has been pawned, we look to see if we have an index card. If we do, we do. If we don't, we don't.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
You did that for thirteen years?

Det. Lester Freamon:
And four months.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Why'd you ask out of homicide?

Det. Lester Freamon:
Wasn't no "ask" about it.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
You got the boot?

Det. Lester Freamon:
Uh-huh.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
What'd you do to piss 'em off?

Det. Lester Freamon:
Police work.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I think I need to buy you a drink.

Det. Lester Freamon:
Just one?

Bubbles:
Thin line between heaven and here.

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
[Landsman knocks on Rawls' door] Major, sir?

Maj. William A. Rawls:
Yeah.

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
I been thinkin'. It's a clear violation of the general orders, I know, but... [Rawls motions for Landsman to sit] Last night, I'm at home, I'm sittin' up buck naked. And I, I got one hand wrapped around a cold domestic beer, and the other wrapped around my magnificent flaccid four-and-one-half-inch wonder, and I am trying with all my might to remember what Leila Kaufman's nipples looked like when her bathing top slipped off at the Hillendale Pool swim party.

Maj. William A. Rawls:
[chuckling] Leila Kaufman?

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
Yes, sir. Uh, summer of '72. I got this saucy wench in my gunsights, so to speak, and, uh... I am dangerously close to engorged when, all of a f***in' sudden, out of f***in' nowhere, f***in' Detective f***in' Jimmy McNulty pops into my head.

Maj. William A. Rawls:
McNulty?

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
Obviously, I gotta open my eyes and admit to myself that my whole night is ruined, at which point I got nothin' to do but think about the problems of Jimmy McNulty, because clearly, this guy and his f***in' problems are standing between me and all worldly pleasure.

Maj. William A. Rawls:
Clearly.

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
First of all... it's not Jimmy's fault.

Maj. William A. Rawls:
No?

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
No. Jimmy is an addict, sir.

Maj. William A. Rawls:
What's he addicted to?

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
Himself. [Rawls laughs] No, it's not funny, sir. As a matter of fact, it's a f***in' tragedy, is what it is. The guy, he has come to believe that he is always the smartest f*** in the room. And you know what? It's not his fault, because let's face it, he's not goin' to Johns Hopkins or joining Mensa, he's taking a f***in' job with the Bawlmer Police Department. His first two years in Homicide, he's in Ulmansky's squad, partnered with Tony LaMartino. Christ, it must've been months, even, he WAS the smartest f*** in the f***in' room!

Maj. William A. Rawls:
What's your point, Jay?

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
My point is... he can't help it. It makes him an a**hole, I know, but... it's also what makes him good police. Last year, he gives me eight clearances. One of them was a decomp floater who was John Doe for three weeks. [Rawls doesn't say anything; Landsman starts to stand]

Maj. William A. Rawls:
Tell your boy to wrap up that bullshit detail in two weeks. He does that, he comes home. Clean slate. [Landsman smiles and leaves]

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
[both investigating a crime scene] Ah, f***.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Motherf***er.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
F***, f***, f***ing f***. F***. F***. F***, f***, f***.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
What the f***?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Ah f***.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
F***! No.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Ah,f***.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
F*** it. how the f***?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Motherf***. Aw, f***. Aw f***.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
F***ity, f*** f***, f*** f***, f***er. Ah f***. F***, f***, f***.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Ah, f***, f***, f***. Motherf***er.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
F***in' A. F***.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
What's that?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Motherf***er.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
F*** me.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
You know why I respect you so much, Bunk?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Mm-mmm.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
It's not 'cause you're good police, 'cause, y'know, f*** that, right?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Mm. F*** that, yeah.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
It's not 'cause when I came to homicide, you taught me all kinds of cool sh*t about . . . well, whatever.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Mm. Whatever.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
It's 'cause when it came time for you to f*** me . . . you were very gentle.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
You damn right.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
See, 'cause you could have hauled me out of the garage and just bent me over the hood of a radio car, and . . . no, you were, you were very gentle.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
I knew it was your first time. I wanted to make that sh*t special.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
It was, man. It f***ing was.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
A man must have a code.

Spiros 'Vondas' Vondopoulos:
He knows my name, but my name is not my name. And you... to them you're only "The Greek".

The Greek:
And, of course, I'm not even Greek.

Airline employee:
Business or pleasure for you?

The Greek:
Business, always business.

The Greek:
Lambs go to slaughter. A man, he learns when to walk away.

Omar Little:
I'm goin' hard after Stringer.

Butchie:
No point in trying to talk you back down, I suppose.

Omar Little:
You been my bank for how long gonna ask me something like that?

Butchie:
How you gonna get at him?

Omar Little:
I don't even know, Butch. I'll take some time and think on it. One thing for sure, though. The man got to be got, you feel me?... What you see, Butch?

Butchie:
Too much, boy. Too damn much.

Avon Barksdale:
String, this ain't about your motherf***ing business class either. It ain't that part of it. It's that other thing. The street. It's the street, always.

Scott Templeton:
[to homeless man on the other side of a fence] Excuse me, sir. Sir. I'm with the Baltimore Sun. Can I talk with you a minute?

Homeless man:
You make an appointment?

Scott Templeton:
[Looks surprised and puzzled]

Homeless man:
Sorry, I'm booked up all afternoon.

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
[... ] This drug thing, this ain't police work. No, it ain't. I mean, I can send any fool with a badge and a gun up on them corners and jack a crew and grab vials. But policing? I mean, you call something a war and pretty soon everybody gonna be running around acting like warriors. They gonna be running around on a damn crusade, storming corners, slapping on cuffs, racking up body counts. And when you at war, you need a f***ing enemy. And pretty soon, damn near everybody on every corner is your f***ing enemy. And soon the neighborhood that you're supposed to be policing, that's just occupied territory.

Asst. State's Atty. Rhonda Pearlman:
The fact is, the industry has all of us by the balls. [pause] Pardon my French, your honor.

Judge Daniel Phelan:
All right, I'll tell you what. Best I can do for you is this: You give me a boilerplate affidavit with the PC from the court report. And then, as you get fresh numbers for the new disposables, you call me - anytime, day or night - to jump phones.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
That helps. But we're still gonna be getting up on their phones even as they're coming down.

Judge Daniel Phelan:
Yeah, probably so.

Asst. State's Atty. Rhonda Pearlman:
This is so totally...

Judge Daniel Phelan:
F***ed up. Je parle fran?ais bien, et tu, hein, tu es charmante aujourd'hui.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
You know, Avon, you gotta think about what we got in this game for, man. Huh? Was it the rep? Was it so our names could ring out on some f***ing ghetto streetcorners, man? Naw, man. There's games beyond the f***ing game.

Bubbles:
Little Squeak, off of Lanvale. Yeah, she used to boost for Turtle Wells' old mob. She lost a little bit of weight, too. I mean, looking a lot better than I remember. And I remember a lot about that girl.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
Damn, Bubs, is there anybody West Side you don't know?

Bubbles:
Just citizens and sh*t.

Det. Lester Freamon:
Check this.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
That's Western District. What, Stringer's calling the Western?

Det. Lester Freamon:
Maybe he's surrendering.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
After all the work we've done, I'd never forgive the son of a b*tch.

Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell:
Are you threatening me?

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
I believe I am, sir. My apologies.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I listen to the sh*t she talks about, first time in my life I feel like a f***ing doormat. Like anyone with any smarts would do something else with his life, you know, earn money or get elected. Like I'm just a breathing machine for my f***ing dick.

Brother Mouzone:
You're the perfect bait, Lamar. They'll see you as conflicted, your homophobia is so visceral.

Lamar:
You see that. I ain't even stepped inside the joint yet and you're calling me a cocksucker already.

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
Scare up a hornet's nest, no telling who's gon' get stung.

Lamar:
What happened to all them towers?

Brother Mouzone:
Slow train coming.

Lamar:
Huh?

Brother Mouzone:
Reform, Lamar. Reform!

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
Now hear me on this, String. We ain't no ingrates. We all recognize your contribute to the co-op. But the feeling is this: It ain't right for you to be at the head of our table when you can't call off your dog. Call it a crisis of leadership.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
You and me? We brothers, B. We didn't think we would make it this f***ing far, but f*** if we ain't standing here right now with the whole world at our feet. The whole world, man, not these f***ing corners. The whole world, B.

Dep. Comm. for Operations William A. Rawls:
Bunny, you cocksucker, I gotta give it to you. A brilliant idea. Insane and illegal, but stone-f***ing brilliant nonetheless. After all my puttin' my foot up people's asses to decrease the numbers, he comes in and in one stroke gets a f***ing 14 percent decrease. F***ing shame it's going to end our careers, but still.

Marlo Stanfield:
One day soon, I'm walking out with a Rolls, hear?

Poker Winner:
Way you've been going to school up in this here room, son, I suspect you're gonna walk out of here with Morgan f***ing Freeman to drive it for you, too.

[A security guard has spotted Marlo shoplifting lollipops at the corner store]

Security Guard:
The f***? You think I dream of coming to work up in this sh*t on a Sunday morning? Tell all my friends what a good job I got? I'm working to support a family, man. [Marlo looks away] Pretend I ain't talking to you. Pretend like I ain't even on this earth. I know what you are. Now, I ain't stepping to, but I am a man. And you just clip that sh*t and act like you don't even know I'm there.

Marlo Stanfield:
I don't. [unwraps a stolen lollipop, throws wrapper on the ground]

Security Guard:
I'm here. [Marlo moves closer to him] Look, I told you I ain't stepping to. I ain't disrespecting you, son.

Marlo Stanfield:
You want it to be one way.

Security Guard:
What?

Marlo Stanfield:
You want it to be one way.

Security Guard:
Man, I don't want it to be --

Marlo Stanfield:
You want it to be one way.

Security Guard:
[losing temper] Man, stop -- [pulls himself together] Stop saying that.

Marlo Stanfield:
But it's the other way.

Dennis 'Cutty' Wise:
I'm gonna show you as gently as I can how much you don't know.

Deacon:
A good churchman is always up in everybody's sh*t.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
You know what you need at a crime scene?

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
Rubber gloves?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Soft eyes.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
Like I'm suppose to cry and sh*t?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
If you got soft eyes, you can see the whole thing. If you got hard eyes - you staring at the same tree missing the forest.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
Ah, zen sh*t.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
Soft eyes, grasshopper.

Bubbles:
He need to be here though. Ain't no 'bout a doubt it.

Marlo Stanfield:
That's my money.

Omar:
Man, money ain't got no owners, only spenders

Det. Ellis Carver:
See, that's why we can't win.

Det. Thomas Hauk:
Why not?

Det. Ellis Carver:
They f*** up, they get beat. We f*** up, they give us pensions.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
All my people, man. My father, my uncles, my cousins. It's just what we do. You just live this sh*t until you can't breathe no more.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
I want what Wallace wanted. I want to start over. That's what I want. I don't care where. Anywhere. I don't give a f***. I just want to go somewhere where I can breathe like regular folk. You give me that and I give you him.

Maj. William A. Rawls:
[to McNulty] I want to see you land okay, Jimmy. So tell me, where don't you want to go?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Jesus, what the f*** did I do?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
You happy now, b*tch?

[last lines]

Omar Little:
All in the game yo, all in the game.

Slim Charles:
Ain't enough y'all done violated the Sunday morning truce. No, I'm standing here holding a torn-up church crown of a bona fide colored lady. Do you know what a colored lady is? Not your moms, for sure. 'Cause if they was that, y'all would've known better than that bullshit. Y'all trifling with Avon Barksdale reputation here, you know that?

Omar Little:
I damn near got that woman killed, yo. Y'all should've seen me in Sinai Hospital while they stitching her up, lying about why somebody wanna shoot me down the street. That woman think I work in a cafeteria.

Kimmy:
Cafeteria?

Omar Little:
At the airport, yeah.

Kimmy:
The airport? Why the airport?

Omar Little:
'Cause I know she ain't gonna never go down there to go dining, that's why! Hey, yo, Kimmy, this ain't funny, yo! That woman raised me! And for as long as I been grown, once a month I been with her on a church Sunday, telling myself ain't no need to worry, 'cause ain't nobody in this city that lowdown to disrespect a Sunday morning!

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski:
[reading from a fortune cookie] "A new friend makes himself known."

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
"Himself"? If it was "herself," then you'd have a fortune.

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski:
Sh*t, I'm married. With lawn furniture, man.

Det. Lester Freamon:
Hey, hey, hey. A life. A life, Jimmy, you know what that is? It's the sh*t that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come.

Det. Lester Freamon:
The job will not save you, Jimmy.

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
Sometimes with the bureaucracy, one hand doesn't know what the other hand is all about.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
Yeah, well. you know what i see? / I see one hand in my pocket, well the other hand seems to have grabbed a dick.

Maj. Stanislaus 'Stan' Valchek:
[to Herc, laughing about the oral sex incident between Mayor Royce and his secretary] What I wouldn't give to be in your shoes right now! Kid, careers have been launched on a helluva lot less. Just shut up and play dumb.

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
[after a subpoena for money records has been served] Because if some federal mothaf***er comes walkin' through the door, I say hey, it's all in the game! But a city police, Baltimore City, Hell Naaaw, can't be happenin' because I know I done raised too much goddamn money for the Mayor and his ticket! Hell Naaaw, aint no soul in the world that f***in' ungrateful!

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
Calm down Clay [Davis interrupts]

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
Money Launderin' they gonna come talk to me about Money Launderin' in West Baltimore, SHIIIIT, Where do you think I'm gonna raise cash for the whole damn ticket! From Laundromats and sh*t, from some tiny ass korean groceries, you think I got time to ask a man why he given me money or where he gets his money from, I'll take any mothaf***er's money if he given it away!

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
I don't wanna know

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
I know you don't wanna know, but Im scratchin' and clawin' to get it done for you Clarence, for you and me and the rest of the team and who comes through my door but a Baltimore City police lookin' to get up in my sh*t about everything!

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
[Trying to reassure Davis] We didn't know about this!

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
I'm sorry I gots to get up outta here before I lose my damn mind

Mayor Clarence V. Royce:
Nobody knew about this!

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
[Leaving the Mayor's office] You wanna run a campaign with my money pillowed under your ass, you need yo people to back the f*** up Clarence!

Patrolman:
[Patrolman making his report to detectives at the scene of a homicide] Single wound, upper back, no casings, no witnesses and nothing on the canvas.

Det. Edward Norris:
Dead when you got here?

Patrolman:
Actually not. He was still conscious and coughin' blood when I pulled up

Det. Edward Norris:
Did you ask who shot him?

Patrolman:
Yeah, I asked who shot him. He said it was a guy with a gun

[Norris's partner laughs]

Det. Leander Sydnor:
Senator. [hands Sen. Davis a subpoena]

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
What the hell is this?

Det. Leander Sydnor:
Subpoena for records. [points to a plaque on the wall] Sphinx club? Man of the Year!

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
What kind of bullshit is this? You people must be out yo damn mind!

Det. Leander Sydnor:
You were in the Sphinx club? My Uncle used to tend bar over there. Marvin Thompson? Short guy...

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
What is your name officer?

Det. Leander Sydnor:
Detective Sydnor sir. [hands Sen. Davis his business card]

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
Major crimes? Sheeeeeeeeeeyet.

Det. Leander Sydnor:
Enjoy your day sir.

Brother Mouzone:
Gentlemen!

Melvin 'Cheese' Flagstaff:
Whassup, my brother? Oh, what what what, uh, you slinging bean pies up in here or something? You with the Nation, homey? 'Cause either you a Muslim, or your mama need to stop laying your clothes out in the morning.

Brother Mouzone:
I'm here to represent the interests of a Mr. Barksdale. Are you familiar with Mr. Barksdale?

Melvin 'Cheese' Flagstaff:
Yeah, that name ring out, but so do mine.

Brother Mouzone:
And you are?

Melvin 'Cheese' Flagstaff:
Cheese, man.

Brother Mouzone:
Mr. Cheese. I see. And who do you work for, Mr. Cheese?

Melvin 'Cheese' Flagstaff:
Who I work for?

Brother Mouzone:
Am I correct in assuming that you are not employed by Mr. Barksdale?

Melvin 'Cheese' Flagstaff:
Hell, yeah.

Brother Mouzone:
Because if that is the case, then I have to insist that you leave.

Melvin 'Cheese' Flagstaff:
This n*gger serious?

Brother Mouzone:
Let me be emphatic: You need to take your black ass across Charles Street where it belongs.

[after shooting Cheese with a nonlethal bullet]

Brother Mouzone:
Pellets in plastic. Rat shot. What you need be concerned about is what's seated in the chamber now: a copper-jacketed, hollow-point, 120-grain hot street load of my own creation. So you need to think for a just a moment and ask yourself: "What do I have to do before this man raise up his gun again?"

Brother Mouzone:
Lamar, where's my Harper's?

Lamar:
Say what?

Brother Mouzone:
Harper's. The new issue.

Lamar:
You didn't say that one. You said the New Republic, and Atlantic, and a new something else.

Brother Mouzone:
I did not forget to tell you Harper's. Every week I tell you the same sh*t, and every week you forget half of what I say. Tomorrow first thing, you go down to the newsstand, and you get Harper's. And the Nation, too, which you also managed to forget. You know what the most dangerous thing in America is, right? N*gger with a library card.

Claude Diggins:
All damn day, he just sit there, reading. And damned if those East Side b*tches don't stay away.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
That's real muscle right there.

FBI Spec. Agent Terrance 'Fitz' Fitzhugh:
[Referring to the FBI] We may be a**holes, but on the upside, there's an awful lot of us.

Chester 'Ziggy' Sobotka:
Nicely done, nicely done. Like I always say, it pays to go with the union card every time.

Bubbles:
No offense, son, but that's some weak-ass thinking. You equivocating like a motherf***er.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
Motherf***er, what is that?

Sean 'Shamrock' McGinty:
Robert Rules say we gotta have minutes for a meeting, right? These the minutes.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
N*gger, is you taking notes on a criminal f***ing conspiracy?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
You disappoint me, Stringer. I had such f***ing hopes for us.

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
Did he have hands? Did he have a face? Yes?... then it wasn't us [laughs]... idiot

Det. Lester Freamon:
You do any accents? English, British, Scottish, something like that?

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
[trying British accent] Crikey! I was looking to get a little hanky-panky and this one bloke gave me this number to call when I got across the pond.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
[laughs]

Det. Lester Freamon:
[laughs] Work on it, son.

[Jimmy McNulty has been acting as the bait for a raid on a brothel. He is typing up his report]

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
[to Rhonda, looking at his report] There were two of them, I was outnumbered.

The Greek:
The world is a smaller place now. And the FBI cares very much about such things.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
What the f*** is that?

Asst. State's Atty. Rhonda Pearlman:
It's a man's purse. European men like yourself sometimes carry one.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
[mumbles] Hm. Them people ain't right over there.

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
[on the phone] Did he have hands? Did he have a face? Yes? Then it wasn't us...

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov:
[laughs, hangs up the phone]... idiot.

[sitting in a hot dog joint]

Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
I never did understand why you stopped eating the pig.

Deacon:
I ain't been in a Polock Johnny's since 1974, and if you knew what was good for you...

Howard 'Bunny' Colvin:
Look, I know what's _good._ I remember when you did, too. I never saw you going all Muslim on me.

Deacon:
Ain't that. But I do believe that other faiths have got the pig figured better than us A.M.E.'s.

Butchie:
It ain't like you to work with strangers.

Omar Little:
I'm celebrating diversity.

Delonda Brice:
What you mean, Kenard took the stash? And he still walking around?

Namond Brice:
I'm gonna talk to him, Ma. Make sure this never happen again.

Delonda Brice:
Look at me, boy. Kenard got to feel some pain for what he did. He got to.

Namond Brice:
I don't...

Delonda Brice:
You don't what, motherf***er? This how you pay me back for all the love I showed? Sh*t, I been kept you in Nikes since you were in diapers!

Col. Cedric Daniels:
Lester Freamon is not in the habit of selling woof tickets. I, for one, would not bet against him.

Randy Wagstaff:
[Last lines]

Randy Wagstaff:
[as Carver walks away]

Randy Wagstaff:
You gonna help, huh? You gonna look out for me? You gonna look out for me, Sgt. Carver? You mean it? You gonna look out for me? You promise? You got my back, huh?

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Yo, what was that?

Wallace:
Hm?

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Castle can't move like that. Yo, castle move up and down and sideways like.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
Nah, we ain't playing that.

Wallace:
Yeah, look at the board. We playing checkers.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Checkers?

Wallace:
Yeah, checkers.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Yo, why you playing checkers on a chess set?

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
Yo, why you give a sh*t?

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Now look, check it, it's simple, it's simple. See this? This the kingpin, a'ight? And he the man. You get the other dude's king, you got the game. But he trying to get your king too, so you gotta protect it. Now, the king, he move one space any direction he damn choose, 'cause he's the king. Like this, this, this, a'ight? But he ain't got no hustle. But the rest of these motherf***ers on the team, they got his back. And they run so deep, he really ain't gotta do sh*t.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
Like your uncle.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Yeah, like my uncle. You see this? This the queen. She smart, she fast. She move any way she want, as far as she want. And she is the go-get-sh*t-done piece.

Wallace:
Remind me of Stringer.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
And this over here is the castle. Like the stash. It can move like this, and like this.

Wallace:
Dog, stash don't move, man.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
C'mon, yo, think. How many time we move the stash house this week? Right? And every time we move the stash, we gotta move a little muscle with it, right? To protect it.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
True, true, you right. All right, what about them little baldheaded b*tches right there?

D'Angelo Barksdale:
These right here, these are the pawns. They like the soldiers. They move like this, one space forward only. Except when they fight, then it's like this. And they like the front lines, they be out in the field.

Wallace:
So how do you get to be the king?

D'Angelo Barksdale:
It ain't like that. See, the king stay the king, a'ight? Everything stay who he is. Except for the pawns. Now, if the pawn make it all the way down to the other dude's side, he get to be queen. And like I said, the queen ain't no b*tch. She got all the moves.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
A'ight, so if I make it to the other end, I win.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
If you catch the other dude's king and trap it, then you win.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
A'ight, but if I make it to the end, I'm top dog.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Nah, yo, it ain't like that. Look, the pawns, man, in the game, they get capped quick. They be out the game early.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
Unless they some smart-ass pawns.

[epigraph]

D'Angelo Barksdale:
The king stay the king.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I'm not going.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
You're insubordinate?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I'm not jumping out on something I believe's going to harm the case. You want to write me up on that, you can.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
You think I want this? I got the Deputy Ops on my ass for this sh*t! Now I got you showing me up in front of the whole damn detail!

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I don't mean to show anyone up.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
Get your vest on.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
No. I've got police work to do.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
Motherf***er, if you felt this way, why didn't you call in sick?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I'm not sick.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
[whispering] Yeah you are.

heroin addict:
Got any testers, man?

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
Nigga, it ain't even 9:00 and you fiendin' on it. Get the f*** outta here, man! Damn.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Yo, why you act like that, yo?

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
What, for these junkie motherf***ers?

D'Angelo Barksdale:
So you just gonna take his money all day and treat him like a dog?

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
How I'm supposed to treat him?

D'Angelo Barksdale:
I don't know. But you ain't gotta punk him like that.

Malik 'Poot' Carr:
He punked hisself. He a goddamn drug addict.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
And you a goddamn drug *dealer*.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
So? So *what*? Oh, what, the 'customer's always right'?

Wallace:
Yo, we in the projects. The customer be f***ed up. You can't give these n*ggers sh*t, man.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Why not? Why can't you? Sh*t, everything else in the world gets sold without people taking advantage, scamming, lying, doing each other dirty. Why it got to be that way with this?

Malik 'Poot' Carr:
'Cause they DOPE fiends.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Yeah, but the game ain't gotta be played like that, yo. You can't tell me this sh*t can't get done without people beatin' on each other, killing each other, doing each other like dogs. And without all that, you ain't got 5-0 down here on our backs every five minutes. Throwing us around and sh*t.

Wallace:
Sheeit, man.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
You think 5-0 care about n*ggers gettin' high? In the *projects*? Man, 5-0 be down here about the *bodies*, yo. That's what they be down here about. The bodies.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
Doin' good out there, D.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
We'll be doing even better when we get that new package.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
[laughs] New package same as old, man.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Say what?

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
Ain't no new package. Just gonna put that same sh*t out in a different colored gelcap is all. Might spike that sh*t with some procaine or some caffeine, but otherwise it's the same.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
String, man, people already coming back on us tellin' us that sh*t is weak.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
I know; sh*t *is* weak, but, y'know, sh*t is weak all over. The thing is, no matter what we call heroin, it's gonna get sold. Sh*t is *strong*, we gonna sell it; sh*t is *weak*, we gonna sell twice as much. You know why? 'Cause a fiend, he gonna chase that sh*t no matter what. It's crazy, you know. We do worse, and we get paid more. The govermnent do better, and it don't mean no nevermind. [pointing to the money] This sh*t right here, D, is forever.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
So what's the name of your fish?

Troy Wiggins:
Wendell O. - as in "Oh sh*t, I tried to buy from a State Police" - Blocker.

Judge Daniel Phelan:
McNulty, I hold you in contempt!

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Who doesn't?

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
[recounting a memory] He says, "Here you go, rook." That's all he says. "Here you go, rook." And then he dropped the bracelets and walked away.

Troy Wiggins:
Shakima she's just talking like that 'cause I had her when she was good.

Shakima Greggs:
Shiiit, you the ugly-ass motherf***er that turned me the other way.

Proposition Joe:
He said y'all would be paying my fee rather than his own, so...

Stringer Bell:
Your fee?

Proposition Joe:
I'm doing like one of them marriage counselors. Charge by the hour to tell some fool he need to bring some flowers home. And charge another hour telling the b*tch she oughta suck some cock every little once in a while. You know, keep a marriage strong like that.

[Omar arrives]

Proposition Joe:
Speaking of cocksuckers...

Proposition Joe:
[to Omar] Don't believe we met. Proposition Joe. You ever steal from me, I'll kill your whole family.

Wallace:
[while eating some Chicken McNuggets] Man, these shits is right, yo.

Malik 'Poot' Carr:
[with his mouth full] Mm-hmm.

Wallace:
Good with the hot sauce too, yo.

Malik 'Poot' Carr:
Most definitely.

Wallace:
Yo, D, you want some nuggets?

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Nah, go ahead, man.

Wallace:
Man, whoever invented these, yo, he off the hook.

Malik 'Poot' Carr:
What?

Wallace:
Mm. Muthaf***a got the bone all the way out the damn chicken. 'Til he came along, niggas been chewin' on drumsticks and sh*t, gettin' they fingers all greasy. He said, " Later for the bone. Let's nugget that meat up and make some real money."

Malik 'Poot' Carr:
You think the man got paid?

Wallace:
Who?

Malik 'Poot' Carr:
Man who invented these.

Wallace:
Sh*t, he richer than a muthaf***a.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Why? You think he get a percentage?

Wallace:
Why not?

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Nigga, please. The man who invented them things? Just some sad-ass down at the basement at McDonald's, thinkin' up some sh*t to make some money for the real players.

Malik 'Poot' Carr:
Naw, man, that ain't right.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
F*** "right." It ain't about right, it's about money. Now you think Ronald McDonald gonna go down in that basement and say, "Hey, Mista Nugget, you the bomb. We sellin' chicken faster than you can tear the bone out. So I'm gonna write my clowny-ass name on this fat-ass check for you"?

Wallace:
Sh*t.

D'Angelo Barksdale:
Man, the nigga who invented them things still workin' in the basement for regular wage, thinkin' up some sh*t to make the fries taste better or some sh*t like that. Believe. [pause]

Wallace:
Still had the idea, though.

Marla Daniels:
The game is rigged, but you cannot lose if you do not play.

Judge Daniel Phelan:
Under the power vested in me by the circuit court for Baltimore city, [makes sign of the cross] I absolve you of all you sins, Detective McNulty.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
You are my sin, you know that?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
See, that's what I don't get about the drug thing. Why can't you sell the sh*t and walk the f*** away? You know what I mean? Everything else in this country gets sold without people shooting each other behind it.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
What're you doing here at two in the morning?

Det. Ellis Carver:
Field interviews. Police work.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
"Police work." I got a 14-year-old kid in critical but stable condition at University and two witnesses who say one of you princes cold-cocked him with the butt end of a pistol.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
No sir.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
I got his mother over at I.I.D. filing a formal brutality charge, which for Herc will make an even four in the last two years!

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
Unsustained...

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
But all of 'em true!

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
Lieutenant, we thought that...

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
I got one less Crown Vic than I had last night, I'm out two Kevlar vests that burned in the car, two hand-held radios, a shotgun and I'm about to lose this idiot here for a week or two of medical! And for WHAT?

Det. Ellis Carver:
Lieutenant, we thought...

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
What did you learn when you went into the Terrace at two in the morning to conduct field interviews? What valuable information did we acquire from this situation? I.I.D. is gonna be on all three of you by afternoon. If you don't get a story straight by then, you're gonna have a file thick enough to see the light of a trial board. Now, tell me, who cold-cocked the kid?

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski:
[after several seconds of silence] Me.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
[intensely] Why?

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski:
He pissed me off.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
No, Officer Pryzbylewski, he did NOT piss you off. He made you fear for your safety and that of your fellow officers.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
Who we got to f*** in this town to get a real office?

Det. Ellis Carver:
Kima, if you don't my asking, when was it that you first figured that you liked women better than men?

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
I mind you asking.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I gotta tell you, Lester, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I can see why Daniels cringed every time you opened your f***ing mouth. You're a supervisor's nightmare.

Det. Lester Freamon:
McNulty, you are deserving of serious psychological study.

Judge Daniel Phelan:
[Referring to the Baltimore Sun] Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.

William Rawls:
Listen to me, you f***! You did a lot of sh*t here. You played a lot of f***ing cards, and you made a lot of f***ing people do a lot of f***ing things they didn't wanna do. This is true; we both know this is true. You, McNulty, are a gaping a**hole. We both know this. F*** if everybody in CID doesn't know it! But f*** if I'm gonna stand here and say you did a single f***ing thing to get a police shot! You did not do this, you f***ing hear me? This is not on you. No, it isn't, a**hole! Believe it or not, everything isn't about you! And the motherf***er saying this, he hates your guts, McNulty! So you know if it WAS on you, I'd be the son of a b*tch to say so! Sh*t went bad - she took two for company. That's the only lesson here.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
If only half you motherf***ers at the district attorney's office didn't want to be judges, didn't want to be partners in some downtown law firm... If half of you had the f***ing balls to follow through, you know what would happen? A guy like that would be indicted, tried and convicted. And the rest of 'em would back up enough, so we could push a clean case or two through your courthouse. But no, everybody stays friends. Everybody gets paid. And everybody's got a f***ing future.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
[leaving Burrell's office] Dope on the damn table.

Freamon:
I don't wanna go to no dance unless I can rub some tit.

Donette:
Boy, don't nobody give a damn about you and your story. You got money, you get to be whatever you say you are. That's the way it is.

Avon Barksdale:
He scare you, don't he?

D'Angelo Barksdale:
You know, I'm just sayin'...

Avon Barksdale:
He scares me. Yeah. See, if he dead, you know, I could carry it better. Commin' up the way we did, you know, you kind of expect that. Waitin' on it. See, the thing is, you only got to f*** up once. Be a little slow, be a little late, just once. And how you ain't gonna never be slow? Never be late? You can't plan through no sh*t like this, man. It's life.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
[after goading Carver into hitting him] You supposed to be the GOOD cop, dumb motherf***er!

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
[after his ex-wife hangs up on him] You know something? My ex-wife, the way she acts sometimes, the way she deals with sh*t... You would think a less enlightened man than myself, a cruder man than myself, a man less sensitized to the qualities and charms and value of women- a man like that, not me, but a man like that, he just might call her a 'c*nt.'

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
You just called the mother of your children a c*nt.

Det. Ellis Carver:
What he means to say is that we are effective deterrent in the war on drugs when we are on the street.

Det. Thomas Hauk:
F***ing motherf***ers up.

Det. Ellis Carver:
Indeed.

Det. Thomas Hauk:
F*** the paperwork. Collect bodies, split heads.

Det. Ellis Carver:
Split 'em wide.

Det. Thomas Hauk:
The Western District way.

Det. Ellis Carver:
A'ight.

Shakima Greggs:
You rogue motherf***ers kill me. Fighting the war on drugs, one brutality case at a time.

Det. Ellis Carver:
You can't even call this sh*t a war.

Det. Thomas Hauk:
Why not?

Det. Ellis Carver:
Wars end.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
[epigraph]... when it's not your turn.

Det. Frank Barlow:
Think I give a f***? I'll be chalkin' you off one night.

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
You have a nice day.

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
[referring to McNulty and Bunk] Look at 'em, Cole. Don't it make your dick bust concrete to be in the same room with two noble, selfless public servants?

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
[to McNulty] There you go. Givin' a f*** when it ain't your turn to give a f***.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I got to ask you. If every time Snotboogie would grab the money and run away, why'd you even let him in the game?

Snot Boogie's Friend:
What?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
If Snotboogie always stole the money, why'd you let him play?

Snot Boogie's Friend:
Got to. It's America, man.

[first lines]

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
So your boy's name was what?

Snot Boogie's Friend:
Snot.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
You called the guy "Snot"?

Snot Boogie's Friend:
Snot Boogie, yeah.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Snot Boogie? He like the name?

Snot Boogie's Friend:
What?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Snot Boogie?

[the kid does not answer]

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
This kid, whose mama went to the trouble to christen him Omar Isaiah Betts... You know, he forgets his jacket, his nose starts running and some a**hole, instead of giving him a Kleenex, he calls him "Snot". So he's Snot forever. Doesn't seem fair.

Snot Boogie's Friend:
Life just be that way, I guess.

Moreland:
[responding to McNulty] There you go, givin' a f*** when it ain't your turn to give a f***.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
What, we don't have enough love in our hearts for two wars?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
[on their way to see Major Rawls] What the f*** can I tell him?

Sgt. Jay Landsman:
Whatever the man wants to hear, Jimmy. Whatever he wants to hear.

[last lines]

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
The murder warrant's on hold. The deputy gave us another month. Also, whoever that was you brought in here today gave himself up as an eyewitness in the Gant murder.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Who, Omar?

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
And Greggs said to tell you she'd write it up in the morning.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Lieutenant - thanks. [McNulty leaves]

Det. Lester Freamon:
It cost you? [Daniels says nothing]

[standing next to Brandon's stabbed, beaten and burned corpse]

Off. Bobby Brown:
This is the worst case of suicide I've ever seen.

Det. Lester Freamon:
We're building something here, detective. We're building it from scratch. All the pieces matter.

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
Major, I'm asking as a favor.

Maj. William A. Rawls:
As a favor?

Lt. Cedric Daniels:
Yes, sir. A favor.

Maj. William A. Rawls:
In that case... no!

Omar Little:
Omar don't scare.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
Y'all are talking about steel and concrete, man. Steel and f***ing concrete.

Malik 'Poot' Carr:
Man, I'm talking about people, memories and sh*t.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
That ain't the same! Look, they gonna tear this building down, they gonna build some new sh*t. But people? They don't give a f*** about people.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
[playing music from Shaft on his car stereo] He's a complicated man. And the only one that understands him is his woman.

Sgt. Ellis Carver:
Seek therapy.

Johnny:
It'll be better tomorrow, Bubs.

Bubbles:
Tomorrow, man. What kind of dope fiend be talking about tomorrow? Tomorrow ain't sh*t. Today, Johnny, today.

Sgt. Ellis Carver:
[the entire squad, plus backup, has chased a runner for several blocks into some overgrown backyards. Carver gets up on the roof of a car and yells this monologue at the top of his lungs] Now listen to me you little f***in' piece of sh*t; I'm gon' tell you one thing, and one thing only, about the Western boys you're playing with: We do not lose! and we do not forget! and we do not give up! Ever! So I'm only gon' say this one time: If you march yo' ass out here right now and put the bracelets on, we will not kick the livin' sh*t outta you. But if you make us go into the weeds for you, or make us come back out here tomorrow night, catch you onda corner, I swear to f***in' Christ, we will beat you longer, and harder, than you beat your own dick!

[about a drug dealer incapable of using code on the phone]

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski:
If that idiot worked for us, he'd be a deputy commissioner by now.

[At the end of a meeting of Stringer's drug organization]

Russell 'Stringer' Bell:
Adjourn your asses.

Preston 'Bodie' Broadus:
No matter how many times you get burnt, man, you just keep on doin' the same.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
[to an inattentive McNulty] I'm thinking of becoming a woman.

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
My brother, let's be fair. I'm providing you with the opportunity to go head to head with the state's attorney in a case that's going to be front page news. For all that profile? Sheeee-it, partner, you should be paying me a fee. Seriously, dog, for twenty thousand cash to my campaign committee, I'll get myself indicted federal, let you go to trial on that. Beat the feds like a stepchild and really make a name for yourself. F*** you? Naw, son, I'm going to make you. Motherf***ers going to be wiping their ass with Johnnie Cochran's memory and carrying your business card in every damn pocket before we done.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
The quicker we bring this in and shut it down, the safer we'll all be. I mean, Landsman wants me over to f***ing Quantico, have the FBI do a profile.

Det. Lester Freamon:
[laughs] You might learn something about yourself.

Reporter:
What are you reading there, Senator?

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis:
Promethus Bound. An ancient play, one of the oldest we have. About a simple man who was horrifically punished by the powers that be for the terrible crime of trying to bring light to the common people. In the words of [checks author] Ascyllius, "No good deed goes unpunished." I cannot tell you how much consolation I find in these slim pages.

Slim Charles:
[Proposition Joe has just bought flowers for Butchie's funeral] You ain't thinkin' no kindly note gonna slow Omar comin' at us

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
It's how I feel. He was a good man

Slim Charles:
and Marlo?

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
Marlo is Marlo man. He weren't the one that put me in this trick bag; the motherf***er who snuggled up an' whispered in Marlo's ear did that. [Slim gives Prop Joe a look, & Joe senses it without looking at Slim] See I know what you thinkin', an' I ain't makin' a move against no kin', not 'til I got more to go on than words. And knowing my sister's son the way I do, if the boy got 50 grand in his pocket, it ain't gonna be long before it jump out and find itself in some salesman hand. And that kink of goody we know. In the meantime, if Omar coming for any of us, he coming for me, and out of respect for that man's skill set, I'm gonna take myself outa the lineup after the meet tomorrow.

Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
[Proposition Joe brought Marlo to Attorney Levy, & Levy has led Marlo into a conference room, leaving Prop Joe with Herc to read the newspaper] Carcetti finally dumps Burrell...

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
Ervin was a year before me at Dunbar

Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
No sh*t

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
He was in the glee club

Thomas 'Herc' Hauk:
[after a pause, Herc looks up from his own section of the paper] You're killin' me. I gotta ask

Joseph 'Proposition Joe' Stewart:
Stone stupid

Recovering addict:
You know how that go, right? Gave myself all these little rules about what I wouldn't do. Like I told myself I'd do a lot of sh*t to get high, but I swore I wouldn't ever trick. So, after I'm tricking, I thought, "This ain't so bad. I'll do this for a while, except I'll make some more rules for myself, like I'm going to use condoms, and I'm never going to go with more than one guy at the same time". Well, let's just say that there are some things that I told myself I would never do. You know what my disease did to my rules, right? Whatever it is you tell yourself you won't do to get high, you're pretty much making a list of everything you will do as soon as your inner addict tells you to. I mean, that b*tch wants to kill me. She does.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
He play you hard?

Bubbles:
I go at him respectable. He put that goddamn shotgun in my face, man. I'm looking at two goddamn tubes of the Harbor Tunnel staring right at me. [McNulty laughs] Each one about yea-big. I damn near piss my pants.

Det. Lester Freamon:
Colonel, respectfully, did you just f*** me over without giving me even half a chance to clear this case?

Colonel William A. Rawls:
[chuckles] Let's be clear, Det. Freamon. When I f*** you over, you'll know it. You'll be so goddamn certain, you won't need to ask the question.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs:
Cool Lester Smooth... hey, what's happenin'?

Det. Lester Freamon:
Same f***-ups in the same sh*t detail, workin' out of the same shithouse kind of office. You people lack for personal growth, you know that?

[Stewedores' Union members were testifying in front of the Grand Jury]

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
How did we do, Charlie?

Charlie:
I almost got one to swear that the docks are actually near the water.

Bubbles:
[after seeing Jimmy 'tie off' the his boat at the dock] What the hell is that?

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
Baltimore knot.

Bubbles:
Baltimore knot? What the hell is a Baltimore knot?

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty:
I dunno, but it's never the same thing twice.

Spiros 'Vondas' Vondopoulos:
[quote after opening credits] They used to make steel there, no?

Nick Sobotka:
Today we got ships, Uncle Frank. Today. The writing's on the f***in' wall.

Frank Sobotka:
F*** the wall.

Roland 'Prezbo' Pryzbylewski:
Trick 'em into thinking they aren't learning, and they do.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland:
[quote after opening credits] Aw yeah. That Golden Rule.