“Mean Streets dealt with the American Dream, according to which everybody thinks they can get rich quick, and if they can't do it by legal means then they'll do it by illegal ones.”

“I learned that the political is above the legal, that’s why when my advisors tell me, Evo, what you are doing is illegal, I say, if it is illegal, then do it legal, you have studied for that”

“The dreams of the rich, and the dreams of the poor—they never overlap, do they?See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich. And what do the rich dream of?Losing weight and looking like the poor.”

“When you work in intelligence, you do things in the country in which you work that are not legal. It's a life of illegality.”

“Jack: What do you mean, you think? Can't you tell?”

“When someone tells me "no," it doesn't mean I can't do it, it simply means I can't do it with them.”

“No admission of the party... can make that legal which is in its nature illegal.”

“Cinderella man,
Doing what you can,
They can't understand what it means
Cinderella man,
Hang on to your plans,
Try as they might, they cannot steal your dreams”

“We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it means danger, revolution, anarchy.”

“I’m in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal.”