Dillinger Quotes & Sayings

By mid-summer only Ma Barker remained in Chicago, lost in her jigsaw puzzles. Karpis drove over to visit her one weekend and found she was doing surprisingly well. He and Dock took her to see a movie. To their horror, the film was preceded by a newsreel warning moviegoers to be on the lookout for Dillinger, Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, Karpis, and the Barkers. Karpis scrunched low in his seat as their pictures flashed on the screen. "One of these men may be sitting next to you," the announcer said. Karpis pulled his hat low over his forehead. — Bryan Burrough

I don't drink much and I smoke very little. I guess my only bad habit is robbing banks. Now you see, fellas, I ain't such a bad guy at heart. — John Dillinger

I rob banks for a living. What do you do? — John Dillinger

Dillinger is an epicure, serenely removed from such soft and bourgeois considerations as loyalty and disloyalty, and her only anxiety in life is to better herself aesthetically. — The New Yorker

Hoover viewed the Dillinger case as a potential quagmire and long resisted being drawn into it. — Bryan Burrough

It hit the damn papers that I was being chased through the woods with dogs and choppers. I mean, who the hell are we after here, John Dillinger? For Chrissakes, I'm just a lowly guitar player. — Richard Betts

You can get more with a simple prayer and a Thompson sub-machinegun than you can with a simple prayer alone. — John Dillinger

We're having too good a time today. We ain't thinking about tomorrow. — John Dillinger

Never trust a woman or
an automatic weapon. — John Dillinger

I'm a great fan of Michael Mann and when he asked to see me I couldn't believe it. I was very happy. I met him and I read this beautiful script. I didn't know anything about Dillinger. I fell in love with the movie and Michael Mann. — Marion Cotillard

When one looks back across a chasm of seventy years, through a prism of pulp fiction and bad gangster movies, there is a tendency to view the events of 1933-34 as mythic, as folkloric. To the generations of Americans raised since World War II, the identities of criminals such as Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, "Ma" Barker, John Dillinger, and Clyde Barrow are no more real than are Luke Skywalker or Indiana Jones. After decades spent in the washing machine of popular culture, their stories have been bled of all reality, to an extent that few Americans today know who these people actually were, much less that they all rose to national prominence at the same time. — Bryan Burrough

Lie down on the floor and keep calm. — Robert Shea

Emotions are destructive, Ms. Dillinger. One of two things will happen to you. You will either be hurt and wish you were dead, or you will end up dead."
Katie stopped in front of the next cooler and checked inside. "I'm human. What am I supposed to do? Just ... be?"
"Welcome to the world. — Mary Abshire

My buddies wanted to be firemen, farmers or policemen, something like that. Not me, I just wanted to steal people's money! — John Dillinger

All my life I wanted to be a bank robber. Carry a gun and wear a mask. Now that it's happened I guess I'm just about the best bank robber they ever had. And I sure am happy. — John Dillinger

A jail is just like a nutshell with a worm in it, the worm will always get out. — John Dillinger

All the way back in 1999, when I first stumbled upon the idea of a project tracking John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson and all the major Depression-era bank robbers, I thought the subject was too big to be a single book. Instead, with a friend's help, I pitched the idea as a miniseries to HBO. To my amazement, they bought it. — Bryan Burrough

Cats be talkin', "Bobby I ain't feelin' ya."
But I bet if I was peelin' your cap back with a two-shot Dillinger
Hot lead released from my cylinder,
You'd be talkin' 'bout, "Bobby I'm feelin' ya!" — RZA

Lamm's system - dubbed the Baron Lamm Technique - worked well. From 1919 to 1930 it brought Lamm hundreds of thousands of dollars from banks around the country; after his death it was taught to John Dillinger, among others.* Lamm's system, still employed today succeeded not only because of its conceptual strength but also because Lamm was able to communicate his ideas and translate them into the seamless performance of an immensely difficult task. He was an innovator who taught with discipline and exactitude. He inspired through information. In short, Baron Lamm was a master coach. — Daniel Coyle

But there was no denying Purvis's ineptitude in the Dillinger hunt. Suspects were found then lost. His informants were hopeless. He raided the wrong apartments. He built no bridges to the Chicago police while annoying other departments. He'd had his car stolen from in front of his house. — Bryan Burrough

The last human of importance the American people have been able to keep in the working end of their brain is your own Chicago triggerman, Dillinger. After him they kind of lost hold on keeping who's who straight. So don't be surprised if they don't remember who Cabot Wright is, or if they do. — James Purdy

Before you rob your first bank, knock off a couple of gas stations. — John Dillinger

Dillinger at one point was the second most popular man in America after President Roosevelt. And he was a national hero for a good reason. He was robbing the very institutions, the banks, which had afflicted the people for four years, and after four years nothing was getting any better. — Michael Mann

All of us should treasure his (John Dillinger) Oriental wisdom and his preaching of a Zen-like detachment, as exemplified by his constant reminder to clerks, tellers, or others who grew excited by his presence in their banks: 'Just lie down on the floor and keep calm. — Robert Anton Wilson