The Wire quotes

Lester

[to "Non-English" speaking crewman] You cannot travel halfway around the world and not speak any motherfuckin' English.

Yo, uh, String, why are you so down on the phone companies, man?

Stringer

While back, I took a stroll through the pit, I saw that kid we got running things down there, uh, Poot. Now, he got the cell phone I gave him for the business, right there on his hip. But, the nigga got another cell phone that only rang when the pussy called. Now, if this no-account nigga got two cell phones, how the fuck you gonna sell any more of them motherfuckers? That's market saturation.

Landsman

There is some charm to a woman in uniform. But the fact remains we work plain clothes in Homicide. Not to say that the clothes need be plain. For you, l would suggest some pantsuits muted in colour. Something to offset Detective Moreland's pinstriped, lawyerly affectations and the brash, tweedy impertinence of Detective Freamon.

Omar

Look, Dante, what's it gonna take for you to be convinced, man? I don't bed no babies. [pauses] Huh?

What you think?

You gonna have to do better than that.

Omar

Oh, indeed.

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?

Rawls

Do you even know what this detail's about Lieutenant?

Daniels

Some kinda beef that Valchek has.

Rawls

Two fuckin' Polacks pissin' on each other's leg.

Hell, if you can't win the war on drugs in a prison, where the hell you gonna win it?

Stringer

Yo', Rock.

Huh?

Stringer

Be subtle with it, man. You know what subtle means?

Laid back and shit.

Daniels

Where are the detectives who were first assigned?

Valchek

Dead. To me, anyway. I shipped them humps back to Burrell as fast as I could.

Kima

[to Daniels, about joining the new detail] I'll tell your wife if you tell mine.

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.

Lester

Colonel, respectfully, did you just fuck me over without giving me half a chance to clear this case?

Rawls

Let's be clear, Detective Freamon. When I fuck you over, you'll know it. You'll be so goddamn certain, you won't need to ask the question.

Kima

Cool Lester Smooth... hey, what's happenin'?

Lester

Same fuck-ups in the same shit detail, workin' out of the same shithouse kind of office. You people lack for personal growth, you know that?

Bunk

How'd we do, Charlie?

I almost got one to swear that the docks are actually near the water.

Sobotka

What do you say, Johnny? What do you say to any question?

I take the Fifth Commandment.