Jimmy McNulty quotes from The Wire

Bunk

You got these off the boat?

McNulty

What, in winter? In a couple of months... fringe benefit. Can't catch crabs in homicide, right?

Bunk

Uh-uh... except maybe the occasional emergency room nurse every now and then.

Bunk

Jimmy, the look on Jay Landsman's face, he nearly cried!

Lester

And Rawls! All afternoon, he just stays in his office with the door closed.

McNulty

Careful, you're giving me an erection!

McNulty

You see the preliminary? Positives for oral, vaginal, anal. No IDs, no passports, no visas, no real money - and the girls are coming across the water like that.

Bunk

Yeah.

Lester

McNulty has a theory...

Bunk

Does he now?

Lester

You deductive motherfucker, you.

Bunk

So he's gonna wander in here with some johnny-come-lately bullshit about how all these girls must be coming over here as prostitutes. Talking about how if they ain't got the cash to travel better than a container ship, then they sure as shit don't got the money to pay a plastic surgeon.

Lester

Then he's gonna go past that. And say something about that one found dead in the water - being tossed off the ship after she's already dead from a beat-down?

Bunk

But why did she get beat? He's gonna ask us that like we don't know.

Lester

Then he's gonna answer his own question, and say her swabs are negative, right? Fuck or fight with all them sailor boys - and she fought.

Bunk

So, it got a little rough, she got banged around, she comes up dead. And then, somebody panics and tosses her in the harbour overnight before the ship ties up.

Beadie

But the other girls saw.

Bunk

So now the other girls, they get told to get back in that can. And our man, to cover this shit up, he gets up on top and bangs down the airpipe. [stands up, sighs dramatically] Anything else you wanna tell us?

McNulty

[about Omar] 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.

Bunk

A different look for our boy.

McNulty

Yeah, Perry Ellis, or something.

Bunk

Now, how would a just-rolled-out-of-bed-looking motherfucker like you, know the designer?

McNulty

[pauses] Okay, I'm guessing.

Bunk

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

McNulty

You know what they call a guy who pays that much attention to his clothes, don't you?

Bunk

Mm-hmm, a grown-up.

Bunk

Boy, them Greeks and those twisted-ass names.

McNulty

Man, back off the Greeks. They invented civilization.

Bunk

Yeah? Ass-fucking, too.

Kima

[to McNulty] How come they know you're police when they hook up with you. And they know you're police when they move in. And they know you're police when they decide to start a family with you. And all that shit is just fine until one day it ain't no more. One day, it's 'You should have a regular job.' and 'You need to be home at five o'clock'.

McNulty

"You need to stop fucking waitresses."

Bubbles

This pay how much?

Kima

Let's treat it like a real job. Say $5 an hour, $30 on a day, max.

Bubbles

That's less than minimum wage.

McNulty

But there's no withholding, Bubs. It's tax-free.

[On McNulty telling Donette about D'Angelo's possible murder] Why go to her? Why not go to me first?

McNulty

Honestly? I was looking for someone who cared about the kid.

Lester

Tell me something, Jimmy. How exactly do you think it all ends?

McNulty

What do you mean?

Lester

A parade? A gold watch? A shining Jimmy-McNulty-day moment, when you bring in a case sooooo sweet everybody gets together and says, "Aw, shit! He was right all along. Should've listened to the man." The job will not save you, Jimmy. It won't make you whole, it won't fill your ass up.

McNulty

I dunno, a good case--

Lester

Ends. They all end. The handcuffs go click and it's over. The next morning, it's just you in your room with yourself.

McNulty

Until the next case.

Lester

Boooooy, you need something else outside of this here.

McNulty

Like what, dollhouse miniatures?

Lester

Hey, hey, hey, a life. A life, Jimmy. You know what that is? It's the shit that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come.

McNulty

We're good at this Lester. In this town, we're as good as it gets.

Lester

Natural police.

McNulty

Fuck yes. Natural police.

McNulty

You know something, Lester? I do believe there aren't five swinging dicks in the entire department who can do what we do.

McNulty

I feel like I don't even belong to any world that even fucking matters.

Kima

'Cause you're a cop?

McNulty

Nah, it's not just that. It's like, I went to meet her once; she was in a hotel room on the top floor. I punched the button on the elevator and it doesn't even go there. You gotta have some kind of special key to even get to that special fucking floor. So I go to the front desk, some sneering fuck calls upstairs, gives me permission to go and get laid. I listen to the shit she talks about and it's the first time in my life I feel like a fucking doormat. Like anyone else 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 fucking dick. I'm serious; I'm the smartest asshole in three districts and she looks at me like I'm some stupid fuck playing some stupid game for stupid penny-ante stakes. She fucking looks through me, Kima.

McNulty

You heard the tapes.

Bodie

Look, he came to me and said we can sell drugs if we moved down to Vincent Street. And that's where I moved my crew. And you know I did! Because you the one that popped me with a G-pack on my way to the spot and let me go, remember?

Pearlman

You were selling drugs in Major Colvin's free zone? You can prove that?

Bodie

[motioning to McNulty] Ask him, he know... Man, this-this must be one of them contrapment things!

Pearlman

You mean "entrapment"?

McNulty

[amused and impressed] Kid's gotta point...

McNulty

Not a good day to be cross-eyed in West Baltimore.

Bodie

What, y'all behind on your quotas or some shit? What the fuck?

McNulty

Seems one of my side got jumped last night.

Bodie

[Chuckling] Yeah, Walker—I heard about that shit.

McNulty

Threw paint on him.

McNulty

Walker's an asshole.

McNulty

Hey, you play in dirt, you get dirty.

Bodie

I ain't no snitch.

McNulty

Didn't say you were.

Bodie

I been doin' this a long time. I ain't never said nothin' to no cop. [Bodie sighs] I feel old... I been out there since I was 13. I ain't never fucked up a count, never stole off a package, never did some shit that I wasn't told to do. I've been straight up. But what come back? Hmm? You think if I get jammed up on some shit, they be like, "All right, yeah. Bodie been there. Bodie hang tough. We got to his pay lawyer. We got a bail". They want me to stand with them, right? Where the fuck they at when they supposed to be standin' by us? I mean, when shit goes bad and there's hell to pay, where they at? This game is rigged, man... we like them little bitches on the chessboard.

McNulty

... Pawns.

Bodie

Yo, I'm not snitchin' on none of my boys. Not my corner, and not no Barksdale people. Well, what's left of 'em. But, Marlo, this nigga and his kind, man, they gotta fall. They gotta.

McNulty

Well, for that to happen, somebody's gotta step up.

Bodie

I'll do what I gotta. I don't give a fuck! Just don't ask me to live on my fuckin' knees, you know?

McNulty

You're a soldier, Bodie.

Bodie

Hell yeah.