Wallace quotes from The Wire

Wallace

[to Bodie] How you ain't courtside for bankin' a narco?

Wallace

[after D'Angelo questions him about not knowing about a particular restaurant.] Shit, if it ain't up in the West Side, I dunno shit, yo. 'Cause this shit? [points at the Pit] This is me, yo. Right here.

Poot

You think he get paid?

Wallace

Shit, he richer than a motherfucker.

Wallace

:[eating chicken nuggets] Man, these shits is right. Yo.

Poot

Mm-hmm.

Wallace

It's good with the hot sauce too, yo.

Poot

Most definite.

Wallace

Yo, D, you want some nuggets?

D’Angelo

Nah, go ahead, man.

Wallace

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

Poot

What?

Wallace

Mm. Motherfucker got the bone all the way out the damn chicken. ‘Til he came along, niggas be chewin' on drumsticks and shit, gettin' they fingers all greasy. He said, Later for the bone, nugget that meat up, make some real money.

Poot

You think the man got paid?

Wallace

Who?

Poot

The man who invented these.

Wallace

Shit, he richer than a motherfucker.

D’Angelo

Why? You think he get a percentage?

Wallace

Why not?

D’Angelo

Nigga, please, the man who invented them things, just some sad-ass down at the basement of McDonald's, thinkin' up some shit to make some money for the real players.

Poot

Naw, man, that ain't right.

D’Angelo

Fuck "right." It ain't about right, it's about money. Now you think Ronald McDonald gonna go down in that basement and say, "Hey, Mr. 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

Shit.

D’Angelo

Man, the nigga who invented them things still workin' in that basement for regular wage, thinkin' up some shit to make the fries taste better, some shit like that. Believe.

Wallace

Still had the idea though.

D'Angelo

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 motherfuckers on the team, they got his back. And they run so deep, he really ain't gotta do shit.

Bodie

Like your uncle.

D'Angelo

Yeah, like my uncle. [picks up a queen] You see this? This the queen; she smart, she fierce. She move anyway she want as far as she want. And she is the go-get-shit-done piece.

Wallace

Remind me of Stringer.

D'Angelo

And this over here is the castle, like the stash. It move like this, or like this. [demonstrates]

Wallace

Dog, stash don't move, man.

D'Angelo

Come on, yo, think, how many times we move the stash house this week. Right? And every time we move the stash, we gotta move a little muscle with it.

Bodie

True, true, you right. A'ight, what about them little baldheaded bitches right there?

D'Angelo

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

It ain't like that. See the king stay the king, a'ight? Everything stay who he is, 'cept for the pawns. The pawns, they get all the way to the other dude's side, you get to be queen. And like I said, the queen ain't no bitch. She got all the moves.

Bodie

A'ight, so, I make it to the other end, I win?

D'Angelo

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

Bodie

But I make it to the end, I'm top dog?

D'Angelo

Naw, it ain't like that. Look, pawns man, in the game, they get capped quick. They be out the game early.

Bodie

Unless they some smart-ass pawns.

Got any testers, man?

Bodie

Nigga, it ain't even 9:00 and you fiendin' on it. Get the fuck outta here, man! Damn.

D'Angelo

Yo, why you act like that, yo?

Bodie

What, for these junkie motherfuckers?

D'Angelo

So you just gonna take his money all day and treat him like a dog?

Bodie

How I'm supposed to treat him?

D'Angelo

I don't know. But you ain't gotta punk him like that.

Poot

He punked hisself. He a goddamn drug addict.

D'Angelo

And you a goddamn drug dealer.

Bodie

So? So what? Oh, what, the 'customer's always right'?

Wallace

Yo, we in the projects. The customer be fucked up. You can't give these niggers shit, man.

D'Angelo

Why not? Why can't you? Shit, 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?

Poot

'Cause they DOPE fiends.

D'Angelo

Yeah, but the game ain't gotta be played like that, yo. You can't tell me this shit 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 shit.

Wallace

Sheeit, man.

D'Angelo

You think 5-0 care about niggers 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.

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?

Fifteen?

Wallace

How the fuck you able to keep the count right and you not be able to do the book problem then?

Count be wrong they fuck you up.