The Hustler (1961)

Paul Newman: Eddie Felson

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Quotes 

• [Fast Eddie is bothered because Bert called him a born loser] 

  Fast Eddie : Cause, ya see, twice, Sarah... once at Ames with Minnesota Fats and then again at Arthur's, in that cheap, crummy pool room, now why'd I do it, Sarah? Why'd I do it? I coulda beat that guy, coulda beat 'im cold, he never woulda known. But I just hadda show 'im. Just hadda show those creeps and those punks what the game is like when it's great, when it's REALLY great. You know, like anything can be great, anything can be great. I don't care, BRICKLAYING can be great, if a guy knows. If he knows what he's doing and why and if he can make it come off. When I'm goin', I mean, when I'm REALLY goin' I feel like a... like a jockey must feel. He's sittin' on his horse, he's got all that speed and that power underneath him... he's comin' into the stretch, the pressure's on 'im, and he KNOWS... just feels... when to let it go and how much. Cause he's got everything workin' for 'im: timing, touch. It's a great feeling, boy, it's a real great feeling when you're right and you KNOW you're right. It's like all of a sudden I got oil in my arm. The pool cue's part of me. You know, it's uh - pool cue, it's got nerves in it. It's a piece of wood, it's got nerves in it. Feel the roll of those balls, you don't have to look, you just KNOW. You make shots that nobody's ever made before. I can play that game the way... NOBODY'S ever played it before.

  Sarah Packard : You're not a loser, Eddie, you're a winner. Some men never get to feel that way about anything.

• Fast Eddie : Maybe I'm not such a high-class piece of property right now. And a 25% slice of something big is better than a 100% slice of nothing.

• Bert Gordon : Eddie, is it alright if I get personal?

  Fast Eddie : Whaddaya been so far?

  Bert Gordon : Eddie, you're a born loser.

  Fast Eddie : What's that supposed to mean?

  Bert Gordon : First time in ten years I ever saw Minnesota Fats hooked... really hooked. But you let him off.

  Fast Eddie : I told you I got drunk.

  Bert Gordon : Sure you got drunk. You have the best excuse in the world for losing; no trouble losing when you got a good excuse. Winning... that can be heavy on your back, too, like a monkey. You'll drop that load too when you got an excuse. All you gotta do is learn to feel sorry for yourself. One of the best indoor sports, feeling sorry for yourself. A sport enjoyed by all, especially the born losers.

  Fast Eddie : Thanks for the drink.

• Fast Eddie : I loved her, Bert. I traded her in on a pool game. But that wouldn't mean anything to you. Because who did you ever care about? Just win, win, you said, win, that's the important thing. You don't know what winnin' is, Bert. You're a loser. 'Cause you're dead inside, and you can't live unless you make everything else dead around ya.

• [last lines] 

  Fast Eddie : Fat man, you shoot a great game of pool.

  Minnesota Fats : So do you, Fast Eddie.

• Bert Gordon : I don't think there's a pool player alive shoots better pool than I saw you shoot the other night at Ames. You got talent.

  Fast Eddie : So I got talent. So what beat me?

  Bert Gordon : Character.

• Fast Eddie : What are you writing?

  Sarah Packard : Oh, it's a story. A story I'm making up.

  Fast Eddie : Give it to me.

  [reads it] 

  Fast Eddie : What is this supposed to mean?

  Sarah Packard : Give it back to me.

  Fast Eddie : What's this supposed to mean? "We have a contract of depravity. All we have to do is pull the blinds down."

  [crumples up the story] 

  Fast Eddie : Write yourself another story!

  Sarah Packard : Well, what else have we got? We never talk about anything. We stay here in this room and we drink and we make love. We're strangers. What happens when the liquor and money run out, Eddie? You told Charlie to lay down and die. Will you say that to me, too? What happens, Eddie?

• Sarah Packard : I'm a college girl. Two days a week - Tuesdays and Thursdays - I go to college.

  Fast Eddie : You don't look like a college girl.

  Sarah Packard : I'm the emancipated type. Real emancipated.

  Fast Eddie : No, I didn't mean that... whatever that means. I mean you just don't look young enough.

  Sarah Packard : I'm not.

  Fast Eddie : So why go to college?

  Sarah Packard : Got nothing else to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

  Fast Eddie : What do you do on the other days?

  Sarah Packard : I drink.

• [in their $3,000 game, after Minnesota Fats breaks, it's Eddie's shot] 

  Fast Eddie : How should I play that one, Bert? Play it safe? That's the way you always told me to play it: safe... play the percentage. Well, here we go: fast and loose. One ball, corner pocket. Yeah, percentage players die broke, too, don't they, Bert?

  [he makes the shot and the spectators applaud] 

  Fast Eddie : How can I lose?

• Fast Eddie : You know, I got a hunch, fat man. I got a hunch it's me from here on in. One ball, corner pocket. I mean, that ever happen to you? You know, all of a sudden you feel like you can't miss? 'Cause I dreamed about this game, fat man. I dreamed about this game every night on the road. Five ball. You know, this is my table, man. I own it.

• Sarah Packard : I love you, Eddie.

  Fast Eddie : You know, someday, Sarah, you're gonna settle down... you're gonna marry a college professor and you're gonna write a great book. Maybe about me. Huh? Fast Eddie Felson... hustler.

  Sarah Packard : I love you.

  Fast Eddie : You need the words?

  Sarah Packard : Yes, I need them very much. If you ever say them I'll never let you take them back.

• Fast Eddie : Boy, you better, you tell your boys they better kill me, Bert. They better go all the way with me, 'cause if they just bust me up, I'll put all those pieces back together again, then so help me... So help me God, Bert, I'm gonna come back here and I'm gonna kill you.

• Minnesota Fats : Shoot pool, Fast Eddie.

  Fast Eddie : I'm shootin' pool, Fats. When I miss, you can shoot.

• Sarah Packard : How did you know my name was Sarah?

  Fast Eddie : You told me.

  Sarah Packard : I lie. When I'm drunk I lie.

  Fast Eddie : Okay, so what's your name today?

  Sarah Packard : Sarah.

• Fast Eddie : I'm the best you ever seen, Fats. I'm the best there is. And even if you beat me, I'm still the best.

  Bert Gordon : Stay with this kid; he's a LOSER.

• Fast Eddie : You saw me beat Minnesota Fats for eighteen thousand dollars.

  Bert Gordon : Look, you wanna hustle pool, don't you? This game isn't like football. Nobody pays you for yardage. When you hustle you keep score real simple. The end of the game you count up your money. That's how you find out who's best. That's the only way.

• Fast Eddie : Fats, you can't run out on me!

  Minnesota Fats : You watch me.

• Fast Eddie : Fats, let's you and me shoot a game of straight pool.

  Minnesota Fats : Hundred dollars?

  Fast Eddie : Well, you shoot big time pool, Fats. I mean, that's what everybody says: you shoot big time pool. Let's make it $200 a game.

  Minnesota Fats : Now I know why they call you Fast Eddie. Sausage, rack 'em up.

• Bert Gordon : How's your hand?

  Fast Eddie : Fine.

  Bert Gordon : Good. I'd hate to think I was puttin' my money on a cripple.

  Fast Eddie : Hey, whaddaya say somethin' like that for?

  Sarah Packard : It's alright, Eddie. I'm sure Mr. Gordon meant no offense. It was a figure of speech.

  Bert Gordon : That's right, Miss Packard.

  Sarah Packard : And a fact is a fact.

  Bert Gordon : Smart girl, Eddie.

• Fast Eddie : What if I don't pay ya, Bert?

  Bert Gordon : [laughs]  You don't pay me? You're gonna get your thumbs broken again. And your fingers. If I want 'em to, they're gonna break your right arm in three or four places.

  Minnesota Fats : You better pay him, Eddie.

  Fast Eddie : So you figure you're still my manager, huh?

  Bert Gordon : I'm a business-man, kid.

• Fast Eddie : No bar?

  Cashier : No bar, no pinball machines, no bowling alleys, just pool... nothing else. This is Ames, mister.

• Fast Eddie : You can't see it, can you, Charlie? I mean, you've never been able to see it. I came after him. And I'm gonna get him. I'm goin' with him all the way. The pool game is not over until Minnesota Fats says it's over. Is it over, Fats?

• [Eddie watching Minnesota Fats during their first game, whispers to Charlie] 

  Fast Eddie : Boy, he is great! Jeez, that old fat man. Look at the way he moves: like a dancer... And those fingers, them chubby fingers. That stroke... it's like he's, uh, like he's playin' the violin or somethin'.

• Sarah Packard : Eddie, look, I've got troubles... and I think maybe you've got troubles. Maybe it'd be better if we just leave each other alone.

  Fast Eddie : I have my things over at the hotel. I'll bring them over later.

  Sarah Packard : I'm not sure. I don't know.

  Fast Eddie : Well, what do you want to know? And why?

• Minnesota Fats : Your shot.

  Fast Eddie : You miss? Now, you don't leave much when you miss, do you fat man?

  Minnesota Fats : That's what the game's all about.

• Fast Eddie : I don't rattle, kid. But just for that I'm gonna beat you flat.

• Charlie Burns : Quiet.

  Fast Eddie : Yeah, like a church. Church of the Good Hustle.

  Charlie Burns : Looks more like a morgue to me. Those tables are the slabs they lay the stiffs on.

  Fast Eddie : I'll be alive when I get out, Charlie.

• Fast Eddie : The pool game is over when Fats says it's over... I came after him and I'm gonna get him. I'm going with him all the way.

• Charlie Burns : How do you feel?

  Fast Eddie : Fast and loose, man.

  Charlie Burns : In the gut, I mean.

  Fast Eddie : I feel tight, but good.

• Big John : You Eddie Felson.

  Fast Eddie : Who's he?

  Big John : What's your game? Whaddaya shoot?

  Fast Eddie : You name it, we shoot it.

  Big John : Look, friend, I'm not trying to hustle. I don't never hustle people that walk in a poolroom with leather satchels. Don't try to hustle me.

  Fast Eddie : Okay, I'm Eddie Felson. I shoot straight pool.

• Fast Eddie : Get on me Bert, I can't lose.

• Fast Eddie : I - could always get us a bottle

  Sarah Packard : No.

  Fast Eddie : A fifth of Scotch.

  Sarah Packard : What do you want me to do, just step out in the alley, is that it?

  Fast Eddie : No. I'll take you home.

  Sarah Packard : All right.

• Fast Eddie : You look - beautiful, Fats. Just like a baby, all pink and powdered up.

• Minnesota Fats : You break.

  Fast Eddie : [Eddie breaks]  I didn't leave you much.

  Minnesota Fats : You left enough. Six in the corner. Fifteen, in the corner. Ace, in the side. Eight. Ten. Eleven...

• Fast Eddie : Sorry, Charlie.

• Fast Eddie : You look different, more relaxed.

  Sarah Packard : It's the lights - and the Scotch.

• Fast Eddie : Thanks for the breakfast.

  Sarah Packard : Two ships that pass in the night should always buy each other breakfast.

• Fast Eddie : Can I sit down?

  Sarah Packard : Why not? We already know each other's secrets.

• Fast Eddie : Hello, Charlie. Come on in. That's my girl.

  Charlie Burns : Hello, Eddie's girl.

• Fast Eddie : It's a nice joint. You look very pretty.

  Sarah Packard : I feel pretty.

• Sarah Packard : What do you want me to do just sit here and wait? Faithful little Sarah. Pull the shades down and sit. When you feel like coming back, you'll come back and love me. And then you'll go away again. Is that your idea of love?

  Fast Eddie : I've got no idea of love. Neither of you, I mean, neither one of us would know what it was if we saw it coming down the street.

  Sarah Packard : I'd know it, Eddie. I'd know it. For God's sake, what are you doing to me? I love you.

  Fast Eddie : Well, what's your idea of love? Chains?

• Fast Eddie : You must have a lot of confidence in me.

  Bert Gordon : I don't. But, I got confidence in Findley.

  Fast Eddie : What's that supposed to mean?

  Bert Gordon : It means I've got confidence that he's a loser. All the way a loser. You happen to be only about one half loser - the other half winner.

• Sarah Packard : Doesn't all this come through to you, Eddie? Doesn't any of this mean anything to you? That man, this place, the people. They wear masks, Eddie, and underneath the masks they're perverted, twisted, crippled.

  Fast Eddie : Shut up!

  Sarah Packard : Don't wear a mask, Eddie. You don't have to.

• Minnesota Fats : Is your name Felson? Eddie Felson?

  Fast Eddie : That's right.

  Minnesota Fats : I hear you've been looking for me.

  Fast Eddie : Yeah, that's right, too.

• Fast Eddie : Hey, mister.

  Bert Gordon : The name's Gordon, Bert Gordon.

  Fast Eddie : *Mister*. You've been sitting in that spot for hours. Would you mind movin'? It bothers me.

• Fast Eddie : You're Minnesota Fats, aren't you? You know, they say Minnesota Fats is the best in the country, where I come from.

  Minnesota Fats : Is that a fact?

  Fast Eddie : Yes, sir, boy. They say that old Fats shoots the eyes off them balls.

• Fast Eddie : I'm gonna beat him, mister. I beat him all night and I'm gonna beat him all day.

• Charlie Burns : Eddie. Wake up, Eddie. We lose again.

  Fast Eddie : [checks the cash in his pocket]  Is this all we have left?

  Charlie Burns : If that's all you got, that's all we got left.

• Fast Eddie : Are you chicken, Charlie?

• Fast Eddie : What time does the bus leave?

  Sarah Packard : What bus?

  Fast Eddie : Your's.

  Sarah Packard : Eight o'clock. That wouldn't give us much time, would it?

  Fast Eddie : You're right, I guess it wouldn't. Hello and goodbye.

• Sarah Packard : I only live three blocks from there. Where do you live?

  Fast Eddie : Around.

  Sarah Packard : I know where you live. In a locker in a bus station. What's it like living in a locker?

  Fast Eddie : Cramped.

• Charlie Burns : Are you figurin' on going back to Ames to play Minnesota Fats again? Is that what's on your mind?

  Fast Eddie : Never been out of it. I'm going to beat that fat man - with that curly hair and those diamond rings and that carnation.

• Sarah Packard : What should my name be?

  Fast Eddie : I don't know, whatever you like it to be.

  Sarah Packard : I like it to be what it is. It's Sarah. That's a Biblical name. Do you want to know its meaning?

• Sarah Packard : Eddie, where do you go when you go out?

  Fast Eddie : Museums, art galleries, concerts.

• Fast Eddie : Stop talking about yourself like you're a lush or something. I don't like it. You ought to go to a clinic, and get some treatment.

  Sarah Packard : I'm getting treatments right here.

• Bert Gordon : Did you see that big car parked out by the fire plug on the way in? Well, that's mine. I like that car. But, I get a new one every year, because I make it my business to know what guys like you and Minnesota Fats are gonna do. I made enough off you the other night to pay for it twice over.

  Fast Eddie : Well, in that case, you owe me another drink.

• Fast Eddie : Sarah, I'm going to Kentucky to play pool with a guy by the name of Findley. Now, I need the action and I need the money. I told you I'd be back.

  Sarah Packard : If you were going to come back, you wouldn't have taken me out tonight, you wouldn't have bought this dress. You're hustling me, Eddie. You've never stopped hustling me.

• Fast Eddie : You know, kid, I think maybe you're a hustler.

• Fast Eddie : That's real sweet music in there. You can almost smell the action and the money. I can feel it right down in the bottom of my shoes.