The Wire quotes

Burrell

You might think it'll be different... when you sit here... but it won't. You will eat their shit. Daniels, too, when he gets here.

Proposition Joe

I treated you like a son.

Marlo

I wasn't made to play the son.

Proposition Joe

Proposition, then--I just step out the way. You never hear from me again. I just disappear.

Marlo

Joe, you'd be up into mischief in no time. Truth is, you wouldn't be able to change up any more than me.

Omar

How you still alive yo'?

They needed to send a message. (motions to Big Guy) Tell him.

They said 'Tell Omar he put his hand in the wrong pocket'.

And you need to know, Marlo's dogs didn't let Butchie go easy.

Omar

Oh, I'm gon' work them. Sweet Jesus, I'm gon' work them.

I want in.

Omar

Nah this one on me, yo'.

But you don't know them people.

Marlo

Man, I don't talk on no cell phones.

Spiros

Here. To call for lunch, you can talk. To call your girl, you can talk. To call your lawyer even, you can talk--the law says that is between you and the lawyer. Alright? To find out what movie is playing down the street, you can talk. All of that is good because all of that tells them... there is nothing good to hear.

Cutty

I guess what I'm tryin' to say is... not everything comes down to how you carry it in the street. I mean, it do come down to that if you gonna be in the street. But that ain't the only way to be.

Round here it is.

Cutty

Yeah. Round here it is. World is bigger than that, at least, that's what they tell me.

Like... how do you get from here to the rest of the world?

Cutty

I wish I knew.

Just because they're in the street doesn't mean they lack opinions.

Where am I going to find homeless people?

Not at home, I imagine.

Bunk

You've lost your fucking mind, Jimmy. Look at you. Half-lit every third night, dead drunk every second. Nut deep in random pussy. What little time you are sober and limp-dicked, you're working murders that don't even exist!

Walon

You're disappointed. Shit, this ain't about the bug, is it? This is you trying to make the past be everything, mean everything. You don't even want to think about the here and now. Sorry, Bubs. Shame ain't worth as much as you think. Let it go.

Spiros

In business...Life...What you learn to appreciate is a dependable man...One day same as the next...

McNulty

Explain it to me again, because I tell ya, I think I'm a smart guy, but this shit makes my head hurt.

They think they're up on your killer's cellphone, but they'll never catch a call because this goes nowhere. And meanwhile, using the same court authorization, I'm up on the live wire down at the detail office, listening to Marlo. Every day, you file office and court reports saying there's been no further contact with the serial killer. I file exactly nothing, but use what I hear to rig the case on our real target. - And when it goes to court -

McNulty

There's no mention of a wiretap - It's all based on a C.I.

Bunk

I'm a murder police. I work murders. I don't fuck with no make-believe. I don't jerk shit around. I catch a murder, and I work it.

Freamon

When they took us off Marlo this last time, when they said they couldn't pay for further investigation... I regarded that decision as illegitimate.

Illegitimate?

Freamon

And so... I'm responding in kind. I'm going to press a case against Marlo Stanfield without regard to the usual rules. I'm running an illegal wiretap on Marlo Stanfield's cellphone.

Fuck. Lester?

Freamon

If you have a problem with this, I understand completely, and I urge you to get as far fucking away from me as you can.

Omar

Now you make sure you tell old Marlo I burned the money. 'Cause it ain't about that paper. It's about me hurtin' his people and messin' with his world. Tell that boy he ain't man enough to come down to the street with Omar. You tell him that!

Bunk

You called the reporter huh?

McNulty

No, actually. That asshole's making up his own shit. Brass called a press conference for this afternoon. They'll be shovellin' so much money at my bullshit it'll make your head spin.

Marlo

[after finding out Omar jumped from a 5th floor balcony] Don't seem possible.

Chris

It don't.

Marlo

That's some Spiderman shit there. We missed our shot. Now he goin' be at us.