- Laura: I can't understand... how it's possible... to live your whole life... without someone... and be doing more or less OK. And then suddenly you find them.
- John Neville: You recognize them.
- Laura: You recognize them. And... you know without them...
- John Neville: [whispered] It's terrifying.
- Laura: Yes.
- John Neville: [whispered] It's beautiful.
- Laura: Yes.
- Donald Phelps: [complaining to a detective who offended him] Son of a bitch. I'm sick of all this name calling crap!
- Michael Reisler: Don't look at me like that. I did not kill Elaine. What reason would I have to kill her? She was the best meal ticket I ever had.
- Laura: Second best. *I* was the best.
- John Neville: Put your finger through there and use the left hand to support the right hand. Push it as far away from your face as you can. Look right down the barrel. And when he comes at you, you squeeze that trigger. He'll go away.
- Tommy Ludlow: I remembered that I was sneakin' out the back door of the bar. So I said to myself, man, I said,"What the *fuck* are you doin', man? Sneakin' out the back door, runnin' away, man, from what? I mean, you didn't do nothin'. Nobody can prove that you did nothin' because you did not do nothin'."
- John Neville: If there's any kind of lapse in your memory - or if there's any period of time in your *life* that you just can't remember, if there's anything you can't remember, it's very important that we discover together - what it is.
- John Neville: I want you to understand something very important. I feel that everything I thought about you, before I really knew you, is not what I feel anymore.
- John Neville: He had an idea that your work was glorifying violence. He had the idea that death shouldn't be used to sell things. Death - is a sacred thing.
- John Neville: That is tragic. Absolutely tragic.
- Laura: You really think so?
- John Neville: Yes, I think it's really tragic that this is the kind of junk that's passing for art these days.
- Laura: Oh. Well, that's a completely different conversation.
- John Neville: I mean, don't you think it's a hype?
- Laura: I don't understand.
- John Neville: Hype, hustle, rip-off.
- Laura: Are you a critic?
- John Neville: No! Do you know the artist? What's her name?
- Laura: Laura Mars. I know her fairly well.
- John Neville: Well, if you see her, will you point her out to me? Because, I'd really be interested to find out what kind of frustrated voyeur type this chick really is.
- Lulu: What I think Laura is saying with her work is like, "Okay, America. Okay, world. You are violent. You are pushing all this murder on us. So here it comes right back at you. And we'll use murder to sell deodorant - so that you'll just get bored with murder." Right?
- Donald Phelps: Control yourself. Relax. You hired this woman, let her do her work. Huh? She's beautiful. Watch. Watch!
- Laura: I'd like her mouth more fuchsia, her eyes much more intense. I'd like them to pop. I'd like to be able to see the mouth and the eyes from a mile away.
- Donald Phelps: Murdered. Something about her eyes.
- Laura: What did you say about her eyes?
- Donald Phelps: Something sharp. Let's get you a drink. Laura? Come on, darling. Come on. Laura?
- Laura: I'm going to call my lawyer. I think it's the time to do that. Or, do you have to read my rights or something first?
- John Neville: No, no. Hell, no. I didn't even frisk you yet.
- Donald Phelps: Frankly, I don't do Rona Barrett. How'd you like to see my Ba-baw Walters? Hey, I do a terrific Lloyd Bridges. Huh?
- Laura: Look, what I'm trying to do is give an account of the times in which I'm living. And I've seen all kinds of murder. Physical, yes. But moral, spiritual, emotional - murder! I can't stop it, but I can show it. I can make people look at it.
- Laura: Why is he killing my friends? Why is he after me? Why me?
- John Neville: A variety of things might attract him to you - and to your associates. It could be a person who's jealous of your success. It could be a person who, in his own loony way feels that your work is promoting porno and decadence and he has a mission to clean up the world.
- Donald Phelps: I happen to believe in giving people a chance.
- Tommy Ludlow: You believe in spit, is what you believe in.
- Michael Reisler: Now, you provoke me! You deliberately provoke me! You may have these other people fooled; but, I know what a killer you can be at three o'clock in the morning.
- Laura: You really know how to manipulate me, don't you?
- Donald Phelps: Manipulate? "Manipulate" is just a little bit paranoid.
- Sal Volpe: Hey, John, how come in that meeting inside you didn't mention anything about that Mars chick, you know, seein' those things and havin' those dreams?
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