Thirty-two hundred bucks. That’s what he gave me. Thirty-two hundred bucks for a lifetime. It wasn’t even enough to pay for the coffin.[about Paulie]
For most of the guys, killings got to be accepted. Murder was the only way that everybody stayed in line. You got out of line, you got whacked. Everybody knew the rules.
For a second, I thought I was dead. But when I heard all the noise, I knew they were cops. Only cops talk that way. If they had been wiseguys, I wouldn’t have heard a thing. I would have been dead.