Zee's

Michael: My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.
Kay Adams: Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don't have men killed.
Michael: Oh. Who's being naive, Kay?

Jack Woltz: Johnny Fontane never gets that movie. That part is perfect for him, it'll make him a big star, and I'm gonna run him out of the business - and let me tell you why: Johnny Fontane ruined one of Woltz International's most valuable proteges. For five years we had her under training - singing lessons, acting lessons, dancing lessons. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on her, I was gonna make her a big star. And let me be even more frank, just to show you that I'm not a hard-hearted man, and that it's not all dollars and cents: She was beautiful; she was young; she was innocent. She was the greatest piece of ass I've ever had, and I've had 'em all over the world. And then Johnny Fontane comes along with his olive oil voice and guinea charm, and she runs off. She threw it all away just to make me look ridiculous! And a man in my position can't afford to be made to look ridiculous!

Jack Woltz: Now you listen to me, you smooth talking son-of-a-bitch. Let me lay it on the line for you and your boss, whoever he is. Johnny Fontane will never get that movie. I don't care how many dago guinea wop greaseball goombahs come out of the woodwork.

[first lines]
Bonasera: I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom, but I taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a boyfriend; not an Italian. She went to the movies with him; she stayed out late. I didn't protest. Two months ago, he took her for a drive, with another boyfriend. They made her drink whiskey. And then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. So they beat her, like an animal. When I went to the hospital, her nose was a'broken. Her jaw was a'shattered, held together by wire. She couldn't even weep because of the pain. But I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful again. I went to the police, like a good American. These two boys were brought to trial. The judge sentenced them to three years in prison - suspended sentence. Suspended sentence! They went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool. And those two bastards, they smiled at me. Then I said to my wife, for justice, we must go to Don Corleone.

Kay Adams: Michael, you never told me your family knew Johnny Fontane!
Michael: Oh sure, you want to meet him?
Kay Adams: Yeah!
Michael: You know, my father helped Johnny in his career.
Kay Adams: Really? How?
Michael: ...Let's listen to this song.
Kay Adams: [after listening to Johnny for a while] Please, Michael. Tell me.
Michael: ...Well when Johnny was first starting out, he was signed to this contract with a big-band leader. And as his career got better and better he wanted to get out of it. Now, Johnny is my father's godson. My father went to see the bandleader, with a contract for $10,000 to let Johnny go, but the bandleader said no. So the next day, my father went to see the bandleader again, only this time with Luca Brasi. Within an hour, the bandleader signed the release, with a certified check of $1000.
Kay Adams: How did he do that?
Michael: My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Kay Adams: What was it?
Michael: Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured the bandleader, that either his signature or his brains would be on the contract.
Kay Adams: ...
Michael: ...That's a true story.
[cut to Johnny singing again for about 10 more seconds before going back to Michael]
Michael: That's my family Kay, it's not me.

Sonny: Samonucch! I got a hundred buttonmen on the street right now. That Turk shows one hair on his ass, he's a dead man.
Tom Hagen: Sonny let's talk about this and get a meeting set up.
Sonny: No! No no more meetings no more Solozzo tricks. You sending a message to Tattaglia? Say "I want Sollozzo" if not it's all out war and we go to the mattresses.
Tom Hagen: Sonny the other families won't stand for that!
Sonny: Well than business is gonna have to suffer.
Tom Hagen: You're taking this too personally, Sonny!
Sonny: You call the hit on my father not personal?
Tom Hagen: Even the hit on your father was business, not personal Sonny!
Sonny: Ok I'll do more business. Hey, listen, do me a favor, Tom, just help me win ok?
Tom Hagen: Ok. I checked out the Captain that broke Mike's jaw. Now he's definetely on Sollozzo's payroll and for big money. What you have to understand, Sonny is that while Sollozzo is guarded like this he is invulnerable. No one ever gunned down a police captain, never. It would be catastrophic, all the families would come after us, the Corleone name would be outcast! Even the old man's police and political connections would run for cover!
Sonny: Alright we'll wait.
Michael: It can't wait.
Sonny: What?
Michael: It can't wait. No matter what Sollozzo says, he's gonna kill pop. That's the key for him. Gotta get Sollozzo. They're gonna wanna set up a meeting, right? It will be me, McKluskey, and Sollozzo. Get our informers out and find out where it's gonna be held. Now we insist that it's a public place: a bar, restaurant somewhere where there's people so I feel safe. They're gonna frisk me when I first show up right? So I can't have a weapon on me then, but if Clemenza can find a way to have a gun planted there for me, then I'll kill them both.
[Everyone laughing]
Sonny: What are you doing? Nice college boy. Doesn't wanna get mixed up in the family business. You think this is a battle field where you shoot someone a mile away? No, you get a 45' shoot them up close and bada bing blood all over your nice ivy league suit. You're taking this awfully personal. Tom this is business and this kid's taking this very personal.
Michael: Where does it say you can't kill a cop?
Tom Hagen: Mikey, come on.
Michael: Tom, wait a minute, we're talking about a crooked cop mixed up in drugs. We're talking about a dishonest cop who got caught up in the rackets and got what was coming to him. That's a terrific story. Now we got newspaper people on the payroll don't we, Tom?
[Tom nods]
Michael: Well they might like a story like that
Tom Hagen: They might, just might.
Michael: It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.

Don Corleone: [In the hospital after Solloazzo's attempt to kill him] There's a lot of trouble with this Solloazzo buisness. It's very unfortunate. I know the Tattaglia's are a bit misfortunate... down on their heads. Well... that's life. Everyone's got their own circle of sorrow.

Don Corleone: Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man.

Michael: My credit good enough to buy you out?
Moe Greene: Buy me out?
[Fredo laughs nervously]
Michael: The casino, the hotel. The Corleone Family wants to buy you out.
Moe Greene: The Corleone Family wants to buy me out? No, I buy you out, you don't buy me out.
Michael: Your casino loses money, maybe we can do better.
Moe Greene: You think I'm skimmin' off the top, Mike?
Michael: You're unlucky.
Moe Greene: You goddamn guineas really make me laugh. I do you a favor and take Freddie in when you're having a bad time, and then you try to push me out!
Michael: Wait a minute, you took Freddie in because the Corleone Family bankrolled your casino, because the Molinari Family on the Coast guaranteed his safety. Now we're talking business, let's talk business.
Moe Greene: Yeah, let's talk business, Mike. First of all, you're all done. The Corleone Family don't even have that kind of muscle anymore. The Godfather's sick, right? You're getting chased out of New York by Barzini and the other Families. What do you think is going on here? You think you can come to my hotel and take over? I talked to Barzini - I can make a deal with him, and still keep my hotel!
Michael: Is that why you slapped my brother around in public?
Fredo: Aw, now that, that was nothin', Mike. Now, now, uh, Moe didn't mean nothin' by that. Sure he flies off the handle once in a while, but Moe and me, we're good friends, right Moe? Huh?
Moe Greene: I got a business to run. I gotta kick asses sometimes to make it run right. We had a little argument, Freddy and I, so I had to straighten him out.
Michael: You straightened my brother out?
Moe Greene: He was banging cocktail waitresses two at a time! Players couldn't get a drink at the table! What's wrong with you?
Michael: I leave for New York tomorrow, think about a price.
Moe Greene: Sonofabitch! Do you know who I am? I'm Moe Greene! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders!
Fredo: Wait a minute, Moe, Moe, I got an idea. Tom, you're the Consiglieri and you can talk to the Don, you can explain...
Tom Hagen: Just a minute now, the Don is semi-retired and Mike is in charge of the Family business now. If you have anything to say, say it to Michael.
Fredo: [Moe Greene leaves] Mike! You don't come to Las Vegas and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that!
Michael: Fredo, you're my older brother, and I love you. But don't ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever.

Tom Hagen: Now we have the unions, we have the gambling; and they're the best things to have. But narcotics is a thing of the future. And if we don't get a piece of that action, we risk everything we have. I mean not now, but, ah, ten years from now.

Michael: [speaking to Carlo] Only don't tell me you're innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.

Emilio Barzini: [during a meeting with the Five Families] Times have changed. It's not like the Old Days, when we can do anything we want. A refusal is not the act of a friend. If Don Corleone had all the judges, and the politicians in New York, then he must share them, or let us others use them. He must let us draw the water from the well. Certainly he can present a bill for such services; after all... we are not Communists.

Don Corleone: I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can be careless. But not men.

Don Corleone: You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you? Or my boy to me?

Don Corleone: I never thought you were a bad consiglieri, Tom. I thought Santino was a bad don, rest in peace.

Don Corleone: What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? If you'd come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.

Tom Hagen: Mr. Corleone never asks a second favor once he's refused the first, understood?

Michael: I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.

Don Corleone: I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.

Michael: Some people will pay a lot of money for that information; but then your daughter would lose a father, instead of gaining a husband.

Sonny: Hey, whaddya gonna do, nice college boy, eh? Didn't want to get mixed up in the Family business, huh? Now you wanna gun down a police captain. Why? Because he slapped ya in the face a little bit? Hah? What do you think this is the Army, where you shoot 'em a mile away? You've gotta get up close like this and - bada-BING! - you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit. C'mere...
[kisses Michael's head]
Michael: Sonny...
Sonny: You're taking this very personal. Tom, this is business and this man is taking it very, very personal.

Michael: It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.

Don Corleone: Someday - and that day may never come - I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this justice as gift on my daughter's wedding day.

Don Corleone: I never wanted this for you. I work my whole life - I don't apologize - to take care of my family, and I refused to be a fool, dancing on the string held by all those bigshots. I don't apologize - that's my life - but I thought that, that when it was your time, that you would be the one to hold the string. Senator Corleone; Governor Corleone. Well, it wasn't enough time, Michael. It wasn't enough time.

Don Corleone: I'm a superstitious man, and if some unlucky accident should befall Michael - if he is to be shot in the head by a police officer, or be found hung dead in a jail cell... or if he should be struck by a bolt of lightning - then I'm going to blame some of the people in this room; and then I do not forgive. But with said, I pledge - on the souls of my grandchildren - that I will not be the one to break the peace that we have made today.

Don Zaluchi: I, too, don't believe in drugs. For years I paid my people extra to stay away from that sort of stuff, but someone comes along saying, I've got powders where if you put up a three to four thousand dollar investment, you can make fifty thousand distributing, then there is no way to resist it. I want to keep it respectable.
[shouts]
Don Zaluchi: I don't want it near schools. I don't want it sold to children! In my city, we'd keep the traffic in the Dark People, the Coloreds - they're animals anyway, so let them lose their souls.

Clemenza: All right, you just shot 'em both. Now what do you do?
Michael: Sit down and finish my dinner.

Sonny: How's Paulie?
Clemenza: Oh, Paulie... won't see him no more.

Don Corleone: Never let anyone outside the family know what you're thinking.

Tom Hagen: Mr. Woltz, I'm a lawyer, I have not threatened you.
Jack Woltz: I know almost every big lawyer in New York, who the hell are you?
Tom Hagen: I have a special practice. I handle one client. Now you have my number. I'll wait for your call. By the way, I admire your pictures very much.