- Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: I wonder what it feels like to work in a real fucking police department.
- Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [quote after opening credits] The bigger the lie, the more they believe.
- Norman Wilson: [about Carcetti who is struggling with budgets] He shorts the police department, the crime rate stays up, he ain't no governor, neither. Just a weak-ass mayor of a broke-ass city.
- Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: Feel better?
- Norman Wilson: A little bit. You?
- Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: [spreading his lapels to show the lining of his suit] Here's our boy Thomas sporting the latest in downtown business wear: an understated ensemble that puts the "b" in subtle
- [the line sounds much better than it looks when it's typed out]
- City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: You say that 120 people were evacuated?
- Alma Gutierrez: Yeah, they were.
- City Editor Augustus 'Gus' Haynes: You can't evacuate people. I mean you can if you want but thats not what you wanna say here.
- Rewrite Man Jay Spry: A building can be evacuated. To evacuate a person is to give that person an enema. The details, Miss Gutierrez. The Baltimore Sun, god still resides in the details.