Boardwalk Empire, Season 4

Joe Masseria:
What do you want?

Nucky Thompson:
See a Broadway show, have the chop at Keens, do a little window shopping... and not be looking over my shoulder every second I'm at it.

Arnold Rothstein:
All of man's troubles come from his inability to sit quietly in a room, by himself.

Eddie Kessler:
Mr. Thompson is a part of everything. He is in the sky and sea. He is in the dreams of children at night. He is all that there is, forever.

Valentin Narcisse:
A thing mixed is a thing diluted.

Bill McCoy:
Tucker's very excited to meet you.

Nucky Thompson:
Most people are until they do.

[Narcisse and Rothstein negotiate a heroin deal]

Valentin Narcisse:
20 pounds, uncut. I will weigh it myself to ensure good measure.

Arnold Rothstein:
80,000 in cash. Large bills only.

Valentin Narcisse:
Why would you expect otherwise?

Arnold Rothstein:
My understanding, you control the local numbers racket.

Valentin Narcisse:
Therefore, I transact my business like a schoolboy, dealing in pennies, nickels and dimes?

Arnold Rothstein:
It was not my intention to offend you.

Valentin Narcisse:
Nonetheless, you have succeeded despite yourself.

Arnold Rothstein:
You're a type I recognize.

Nucky Thompson:
What type is that?

Arnold Rothstein:
A small town gladhander, peeking up over the fence, eager to stick his finger in a new piece of pie.

Nucky Thompson:
I don't like pie.

Arnold Rothstein:
Well, I have learned something new about you.

[Lansky wants to go into business with Nucky]

Nucky Thompson:
Tell me something about yourself.

Meyer Lansky:
I'm a businessman. Charlie and I partnered in several high level endeavors...

Nucky Thompson:
No. About yourself. What kind of man you are.

[pause]

Meyer Lansky:
When I was a boy, my father moved us from Russia to the Upper East Side. He was weak, my father - never stood up. One day, on the way to school, I was stopped by a gang of older boys. The leader said he wanted my lunch money. I told him, go fuck himself. He laughed, said he'd beat it out of me, so I spit in his face. He did beat me - they all did - and he took my money. Next day, same thing: Again I spit in his face, again we fought. But the third day, the kid asked me to join his gang. He was Charlie Luciano. That's how we teamed up. Last year, we made more money than the President of the United States. And I think you will find us to be responsible partners, both here and in Florida, should you need eyes on the investment.

Nucky Thompson:
$500,000.

Meyer Lansky:
Done.

Nucky Thompson:
In 48 hours.

Meyer Lansky:
Done.

Nucky Thompson:
[extending his hand] The money doesn't show, this conversation never happened - and it won't ever happen again.

[Nucky has gotten Willie out of a murder charge]

Nucky Thompson:
Whatever occurred, it's over. Every now and then you'll think about the terrible thing that occurred to a boy whose face you can't quite remember. I promise you, you can live with it.

Willie Thompson:
Is that what you do?

Nucky Thompson:
[pause] You're going to graduate. We'll get you into another school, if that's what's required. It's not important now. You worry about what other people might say, you worry about someone who you call a friend - none of that matters. The only thing that you can count on is blood, the blood that's in your veins and the blood that's in mine. People who discount you? They don't know who you are. The rage you feel - listen to me carefully: it's a gift. Use it, but don't let anyone see it. Know that I'm watching over you. Show me the person you intend to be.

Eddie Kessler:
I have done nothing wrong.

Agent Knox:
You had a pistol up your sleeve.

Eddie Kessler:
That is for protection.

Agent Knox:
Against who?

Eddie Kessler:
[sarcastically] Apaches!

Nucky Thompson:
My circumstances have changed. There are things I won't do anymore. You understand that, don't you?

Margaret Thompson:
There's what I know, what I suspect and what I don't think I should ever hear.

Al Capone:
[weeping over his brother Frank's body] Everything that crawls is gonna pay!

Margaret Thompson:
I's a woman's place to tend to the home. It's a man's to tend to the future.

Daughter Maitland:
Dr. Narcisse found me. Put his wings around me ever since.

Chalky White:
You and him ever...?

Daughter Maitland:
No, he's a decent man.

Chalky White:
So what that make me?

Daughter Maitland:
That make you my man.

Valentin Narcisse:
Where I am from, Mr. Thompson, there are no such things as "niggers", and I refuse to be treated like one.

[Van Alden has a gun on Dale]

Dale:
Whoa, whoa, Mueller, calm down!

Nelson Van Alden:
I am calm. [shoots him dead]

Chalky White:
[to Nucky] Heard a lot of "we" last year, when you was in trouble. Now it's just "you."

Dean O'Banion:
[holding Van Alden at gunpoint] How's about the truth, Mueller? One more "I'm sorry", "I don't know", "I'm not looking for any trouble", and I will pop your head open like a melon.

Nelson Van Alden:
I didn't kill Stu. Al Capone did. But I have killed other men. The one you know about, the three that attacked me... and my partner.

Dean O'Banion:
Your what?

Nelson Van Alden:
I was a Prohibition agent. I drowned him with my bare hands. My name isn't Mueller. I'm not legally married to my wife. I used to believe in God, but now I don't believe in anything at all.

Arnold Rothstein:
May I offer you some free advice?

Margaret Thompson:
Is there anything more expensive in the world?

[Nucky is threatening to execute Lansky for betraying him]

Nucky Thompson:
You come to me begging, some wet behind the ears little shit...

Meyer Lansky:
Nucky...

Nucky Thompson:
You assure me your intentions are honorable, that you and your partner have big plans for the future.

Meyer Lansky:
If you just let me speak...

Nucky Thompson:
I let you in on the deal, things are going great. And then what do you do the second you get the chance?

Meyer Lansky:
Mr. Thompson...

Nucky Thompson:
You stick it up my fucking ass!

Meyer Lansky:
We were coerced, Charlie and I! By Masseria. He found out about Tampa from his cousin.

Eli Thompson:
Petrocelli.

Meyer Lansky:
And realized he could use it to his advantage.

Nucky Thompson:
As did you and your greaseball partner.

Meyer Lansky:
He would've killed us if we didn't go along!

Nucky Thompson:
You think I fucking won't?

Meyer Lansky:
I know that is a distinct possibility, sir, though I do pray to God that it won't happen. If it were up to me, sir, I'd have nothing to do with narcotics. There is plenty of money to be made in booze, which is a safer and eminently more socially acceptable...

Nucky Thompson:
[slaps him across the face] You've got two fucking seconds to drop the boy scout routine, or you're going in that hole!

Meyer Lansky:
There's a fortune to be made in heroin. Millions and millions of dollars. Now, I don't know about you, but the way I saw it, it was the same life I was risking either way. I'm beggin' you, Mr. Thompson, please! What would you have done if you were me?

Gillian Darmody:
Childhood doesn't last. Nothing lasts.

Gillian Darmody:
You can make yourself live with anything.

Eli Thompson:
[to Willie] You go to him? Over your father?

Nucky Thompson:
I'm the one who can fix it.

Eli Thompson:
He was supposed to amount to somethin'!

Nucky Thompson:
He's still going to.

Eli Thompson:
What? A man in an empty hotel, pointing a gun at his brother?

Nucky Thompson:
I did it for the family.

Eli Thompson:
You don't have a family. I do. Now you're gonna take that too? Nothing will fill that hole you got inside you. Don't you know that yet?

Nucky Thompson:
This is your mess, Eli. Drown in it.

J. Edgar Hoover:
You seem to be a clever fellow. Who do you think gets to decide what the truth is?

Valentin Narcisse:
Truth is what those in power wish it to be.

J. Edgar Hoover:
During the course of investigating the seditious activities of Marcus Garvey, James M. Tolliver, Special Agent with the Bureau of Investigation, was murdered in Atlantic City, New Jersey by an unidentified colored male. Dr. Valentin Narcisse assisted the Bureau in apprehending the suspect. He further agreed, during a private conversation with Director Hoover, to provide ongoing, secret intelligence regarding Mr. Garvey, with particular concern to his radical agenda and his ties to foreign powers.

Valentin Narcisse:
And why would he do that?

J. Edgar Hoover:
To demonstrate his commitment to the values of his adopted land.

Valentin Narcisse:
Brother Garvey is a hero, dedicated to liberation of a great people.

J. Edgar Hoover:
But you are not. You are just a peddler and a pimp sitting in a jail cell.

Valentin Narcisse:
I am a businessman and a follower of Christ.

J. Edgar Hoover:
You agree to cooperate, you can go on pretending to be anything you want. You don't, and I will make sure you never see daylight in America again.

Valentin Narcisse:
[to himself] Sufficient unto the days the evil thereof...

J. Edgar Hoover:
I cannot hear you.

Valentin Narcisse:
I said yes.

J. Edgar Hoover:
Yes, what?

Valentin Narcisse:
Yes... sir.