Quotes from Wiseguy

Nicholas Pileggi ·  320 pages

Rating: (10.9K votes)


“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, quote from Wiseguy


“On one occasion Jimmy is said to have given the elderly, impoverished mother of a young hood five thousand dollars. The woman’s son was said to have owed his mother the money but had refused to pay her. Jimmy was apparently so incensed at this lack of regard for motherhood that he gave the woman the five thousand in the morning, claiming it was from her son, and then allegedly killed the woman’s son before dusk.”
― Nicholas Pileggi, quote from Wiseguy


“Henry was never able to help McDonald crack Lufthansa—the”
― Nicholas Pileggi, quote from Wiseguy


“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, quote from Wiseguy


“The federal prosecutors were asking him about his role in the $6 million Lufthansa German Airlines robbery, the largest successful cash robbery in American history.”
― Nicholas Pileggi, quote from Wiseguy



“I had a drugstore wholesaler who had discount stores all over Long Island.”
― Nicholas Pileggi, quote from Wiseguy


About the author

Nicholas Pileggi
Born place: in New York, New York, The United States
Born date February 22, 1933
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Thank God, Helen, I'm not like you! I sometimes think you don't think or feel or care to do anything but exist! You're like Mr. Hirst. You see that things are bad, and you pride yourself on saying so. It's what you call being honest; as a matter of fact it's being lazy, being dull, being nothing. You don't help; you put an end to things.”
― Virginia Woolf, quote from The Voyage Out


“I have no special virtue to make me resent him. One must have strength in order to judge the weakness of others. I am not so mighty.” This”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, quote from The Illearth War


“Mom loved my brother more. Not that she didn't love me - I felt the wash of her love every day, pouring over me, but it was a different kind, siphoned from a different, and tamer, body of water. I was her darling daughter; Joseph was her it.”
― Aimee Bender, quote from The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake


“It is my belief that, as a rule, creatures of Happy’s ilk—I am thinking here of canines and men both—more often run free than live caged, and it is in fact a world of mud and feces they desire, a world with no Art in it, or anyone like him, a place where there is no talk of books or God or the worlds beyond this world, a place where the only communication is the hysterical barking of starving and hate-filled dogs.”
― Joe Hill, quote from 20th Century Ghosts


“Scriitorul este un vrăjitor pentru că a scrie este o devenire, pentru că actul de a scrie este traversat de niște stranii deveniri care nu sunt niște deveniri-scriitor, ci niște deveniri-șobolan, deveniri-insectă, deveniri-lup etc. ... Multe sinucideri de scriitori se explică tocmai prin astfel de participări contra naturii, prin astfel de nunți contra naturii. Scriitorul este un vrăjitor pentru că trăiește animalul ca pe singura populație față de care se simte responsabil de drept. ... îi creează incredibilul sentiment al unei Naturi necunoscute – afectul. Deoarece afectul nu este un sentiment personal sau un caracter, ci efectuarea unei puteri de haită care bulversează total eul, făcându-l să nu mai fie sigur de el însuși. Cine n-a cunoscut violența acestor secvențe animale care ne smulg din umanitate fie și doar pentru o clipă, facându-ne să ronțăim pâinea asemenea unei rozătoare... (Gilles Deleuze et Félix Guattari)”
― Gilles Deleuze, quote from A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia


Interesting books

John Barleycorn: Alcoholic Memoirs
(2K)
John Barleycorn: Alc...
by Jack London
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls
(3.5K)
The Cavendish Home f...
by Claire Legrand
The Windflower
(1.7K)
The Windflower
by Laura London
Four Letters of Love
(1.7K)
Four Letters of Love
by Niall Williams
Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear
(9.2K)
Traveling Light: Rel...
by Max Lucado
Play With Me
(2)
Play With Me
by Lolo Mayaya

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.