Nicholas Pileggi Quotes & Sayings

Let me tell you something. Nobody goes to jail unless they want to. Unless they make themselves get caught. They don't have things organized. — Nicholas Pileggi

Henry was never able to help McDonald crack Lufthansa - the — Nicholas Pileggi

Of course, no matter how Henry tried to rationalize what he had done, his survival depended upon his capacity for betrayal. He willingly turned on the world he knew and the men with whom he had been raised with the same nonchalance he had used in setting up a bookie joint or slipping a tail. For Henry Hill giving up the life was hard, but giving up his friends was easy. — Nicholas Pileggi

Las Vegas is a city of kickbacks. A desert city of greased palms. A place where a $20 bill can buy approval, a $100 bill adulation and $1,000 canonization. — Nicholas Pileggi

I know there are women, like my best friends, who would have gotten out of there the minute their boyfriend gave them a gun to hide, but I didn't. I gotta admit the truth: It turned me on. — Nicholas Pileggi

For most of the guys killings got to be accepted. Murder was the only way everybody stayed in line. You got out of line, you got whacked. Everybody knew the rules. — Nicholas Pileggi

By birth, certainly, they were not prepared in any way to achieve their desires. They were not the smartest kids in the neighborhood. They were not born the richest. They weren't even the toughest. In fact, they lacked almost all the necessary talents that might have helped them satisfy the appetites of their dreams, except one - their talent for violence. — Nicholas Pileggi

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. — Nicholas Pileggi