- Nicholas "Nick" Roth: [on the phone to Duncan] I know the boss will be so relieved to know that everything is going just fine. He was awfully upset about that little fiasco yesterday. I know you did everything you could to make us look bad. Anyway, I just wanted to call and tell you it's a great day to be me, mostly because I'm not you.
- Duncan: There's a fine line between luck and skill.
- Nicholas "Nick" Roth: In fact, there's no line at all.
- Duncan: Now that we've thanked our foot soldier for the invaluable work contributed here today, please dismiss yourself.
- Claire Kelsky: Fuck you!
- Duncan: You know the boss and I have some important financial matters to discuss. Numbers? You know, things you wouldn't understand.
- Claire Kelsky: Alright boys, I'm in.
- [sitting down to play poker]
- Bosch: I could use the challenge... take anymore from these boys and I'm gonna own 'em outright.
- Nicholas "Nick" Roth: The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
- Kitty: Thoreau.
- Nicholas "Nick" Roth: Amazing.
- Kitty: I'm surprised you talk to me.
- Nicholas "Nick" Roth: Well, the boss does not see in me the same threat he sees in other men.
- Kitty: Why? You don't like girls?
- Nicholas "Nick" Roth: [pause] My medications have taken their toll.
- Kitty: They're just tools for the boss, they have no idea how badly they're being used.
- Nicholas "Nick" Roth: Everyone is a tool for someone. The thing to consider is what exactly one should be used for.
- Duncan: [sighs] It's nice to see you, Kitty.
- [pause]
- Duncan: Now we haven't spoken for a while. How was your day?
- [Kitty shrugs]
- Duncan: [speaking as if he were Kitty] It was fine, Duncan. I mean it was just like yesterday and the day before that. So, slowly I work up the courage to run away, but I never get quite enough courage to run really far away. And then someone is sent, and I'm brought back, and I'm noticed by the boss, but it's only to punish me for running away because how does that reflect on him?
- [tears well up in Kitty's eyes as Duncan continues]
- Duncan: And then I'm back to sitting in my niche and bettering myself with books that no one I know can possibly appreciate. I find myself hating them... more... and more... until I think... umm, maybe it's time to run away again.
- [Kitty sniffles]
- Duncan: Now that sounds like a bad day, Kitty.
- Duncan: He's dead.
- [feeling for a pulse on the neck of the bagman]
- Nicholas "Nick" Roth: Of course he is.
- [having shot the bagman]
- [the Boss sighs, and then pulls a large pair of shears out of his desk drawer]
- The Boss: No, I don't think you fully appreciate your position here. 'Cause if you did, you'd be spilling your guts and praying to God that I kill you quick before I crush your balls like harvest grapes.
- Joseph Koo: Oh God, please don't! It wasn't supposed to go this way!
- Duncan: [calmly] Wrong, Koo. I think it WAS supposed to go this way.
- [pause]
- Duncan: Somebody sent you out in public knowing you'd get picked up. You've been set up. Now I know you're scared, but listen carefully, your situation has changed. You are going to be tortured more heinously than you can conceive of by the man behind this desk.
- [pause]
- Duncan: Only one way to avoid that.
- [pause]
- Duncan: Only one way out.
- [pause]
- Duncan: Whattaya gonna do?
- [blood splatters all over Claire when Nick shoots the bagman]
- Claire Kelsky: Ah! I had him. You did that on purpose.
- The Boss: You know when I was young, I had this boss, Lazar. He used to talk a lot about getting taken out. He always used to say "You gotta see it comin', you gotta look for it where you think it is, you gotta look for it where you think it ain't, you gotta look hard, you gotta be fast. Because even seein' it comin' don't mean you can stop it."
- Jimmy: So you killed him?
- The Boss: Damn right.
- [the Boss casually takes the gun from his son Jimmy's hand]
- The Boss: Know anything about last night?
- Jimmy: [surprised] I love you, dad.
- The Boss: [playfully] I love you too, Jimmy.
- [the Boss punches Jimmy viciously in the eye, knocking him to the ground]
- The Boss: [screaming] Didja do it! Didja!
- Jimmy: No!
- The Boss: [calmly] Well, that's good. That's good, Jimmy.
- [pause]
- The Boss: Go pour yourself a shot of bourbon, you took that one like a man.
- [the boss bursts into the room and breaks up a loud argument among his henchmen at the poker table]
- The Boss: What the fuck is going on?
- Ives: Somebody was cheating, boss.
- The Boss: Yeah, well of course somebody was cheating, you're a bunch of fucking criminals. That is precisely why this always happens.
- [Jimmy tries in vain to prove his manhood to his father's henchmen by describing in detail the new pistol he's just acquired]
- Nicholas "Nick" Roth: Do they make them for men?
- [last lines]
- Claire Kelsky: [signing softly] I love bananas, 'cause they have no bones, but I hate peaches, cause they have stones.
- Kid: [on Duncan and St. John] Where are the two men?
- Claire Kelsky: I killed them. Wanna help me bury them?
- Kid: Okay.