Gangster Quotes

“I was now well prepared to be a career criminal. I had the proper training and a natural feel for the business. I had a respect for the old-liners like Angelo and Don Frederico. I had been a witness to both murder and betrayal and had my appetite whetted for acts of revenge.

I just didn't have the stomach for any of it.

I didn't want my life to be a lonely and sinister on, where even the closest of friends could overnight turn into an enemy who needed to be eliminated. If I went the way Angelo had paved, I would earn millions, but would never be allowed to taste the happiness and enjoyment such wealth often brings. I would rule over a dark world, a place where treachery and deceit would be at my side and never know the simple pleasures of an ordinary life. p368. ”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“A true gangster can smell out a person's strenghts and weaknesses in a matter of minutes, but what they can sense most of all, what their bodies are most attuned to, is the scent of fear.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“It's always better to like a gangster from a distance anyway. Like a tiger cub in a cage. They always look soft and cute and warm behind those iron bars. Everybody's happy, smilimg, waving, taking pictures. But you take away those bars and all that goes away. All that's left is the fear.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“The older you get, the deadlier you have to be and you use age to your advantage. You make it a strenght. Most of us are more dangerous the longer we live. If we didn't care about dying when we were young, we're not going to be too concerned about it when we have two feet in our grave.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“A gangster must always be prepared to kill a friend. It is one of the many open secrets of the business, since it is the truest test of his ability to rule and command the respect of his crew. To eliminate a sworn enemy requires little more than opportunity, luck and the willingness to pull a trigger. But to end the life of someone once considered close, regardless of any previous betrayal, requires a determination that few men possess.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“No gangster is ever happy when he's at peace. The main reason he's in the business is to eliminate his enemies.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“‎"What you want your life to be and what it becomes are never the same," I said. "It's only about what you end up with or what you settle for. And by the time that happens, it's too late for you to do anything else"

"What would you have changed?" she asked.

"The last twenty years," I said.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“He had no tolerance for acts of betrayal or cruelty and lacked Angelo's taste for the minute details of a business deal. He was a man totally in the moment, who knew only to respond to the action with an action. He was a pure gangster.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“Gangsters live for the action. The closer to death, the nearer to the heated coil of the moment, the more alive they feel. Most would rather succumb to a barrage of bullets from a roomful of sworn enemies than to the debilitation of old age, dying the death of the feeble. A gangster becomes as addicted to the thrill of the battle and the potential to die in the midst of it as he does to he more attractive lures in his path. In his world, the potential for death exists every day. The better gangsters don't shy away from such a dreaded possibility but rather find comfort in its proximity.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“Sto neprijatelja i jedan prijatelj ucinice te bogatim covekom u poslu. U bilo kom poslu.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“All money is blood money.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“Tell me this,” Pudge would often ask me, as he sat and read about the exorbitant funeral of a rival. “If he was the guy with all the power, then how come he’s riding in the lead car, stuffed inside a coffin?”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster: A Novel

“It was a gift,” Angelo said. “From a friend.” “A friend does not give a gun as a gift.” Angelo walked into the room and sat down next to his father. “This one does,” he said. “And what will you do with such a gift?” “It will remind me,” Angelo said in a near whisper. “Of what?” Paolino’s eyes searched the boy’s face. “Of what I am without it, Papa.”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster: A Novel

“The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty.
--George Bernard Shaw”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster

“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
--Benjamin Franklin”
― Lorenzo Carcaterra, Gangster