"So I guess I'd become what they wanted me to be, a killer. Some rent a clown with a gun who puts holes in other bad guys. Well, that's what they had paid for, so in the end that's what they got. Say what you want about Americans, but we understand capitalism. You buy yourself a product and you get what you pay for, and these chumps had paid for some angry gri*go without the sensibilities to know right from wrong. Here I was, about to execute this poor bastard like some dime store angel of death and I realized they were correct. I wouldn't know right from wrong if one of them was helping the poor and the other was banging my sister."


“Way I see it, there's two types of people. Those who spend their lives trying to build a future, and those who spend their lives trying to re-build the past. For too long I'd been stuck in between, hidden in the dark.“
"But what was I really doing walking in there with my bad haircut and ridiculous shirt? Was I there to make something right? Or was I just using messed-up situation to indulge myself, grasping at some desperate delusion of control? Maybe the two went hand in hand more than I cared to admit."

''Listen, if you think I can still do a job, what have I got to lose? Apart from the weight. Very funny... Ha ha... Yes, that is a fake laugh, you jerk.''

"I had killed more cops than cholesterol"

"I had a hole in my second favorite drinking arm."

''I knew this was a bad idea, but in the absence of any good ideas, I continued forward''.

"i had chosen to be here, i wanted this. Was it redemption? Not really, just pathetic desperation, and not much else"

"I decided I was gonna die sober, not drunk. At least then I could see who shot me."

''I'd been sitting at the bar for three hours, or five years depending on how you looked at things''

"I tried not to look at things. I tried not to think about when it was that my existence became less about the things that make up people's lives, and more about the holes that losing those things leave behind... but I wasn't doing a very good job at it."

"One of my bullets is buried down there with her. I tell myself it was a tragic misunderstanding, an awful mistake. I tell myself a lot of things. All of it crap."

''If someone had told me six months ago this was where my life was headed, I'd have ordered a double of what they were drinking, drunk it, then blown my head off.''

"This kind of place made me want to puke. I needed a real drink to cope with the electronic music and robotic people."

"I wrote the book on bad ideas, but Passos sure wasn't afraid to quote from it."

"I ain't slippin' man. I'm slipped. I'm bad joke."

"So that was it, was it? Say the magic word and be absolved of your sins? If only sh*t were that simple, I'd have done it years ago. Me? I been stuck in the past so long I'd forgotten what year it was."

"So far I'd managed to keep a low profile, a bit out of character for a guy who's only comfortable with a bottle of whiskey or a gun in his hand."

"Something felt wrong. In fact, everything felt wrong."

"Like so many times before, I’d found myself alone, locked on a course of destruction. It was at my worst when I was at my best."

"This place has more smoke 'n mirrors than a strip club dressing room"

"Time was a luxury I couldn't afford."

"I was a dumb American in a place where dumb Americans are less popular than the clap"


"The guy was smoother than a oil slick on an iceberg, and about as toxic"

''A barely recovering alcoholic and an unarmed pregnant woman. We were hardly a SEAL team.''

".. and what kind of people were they? People who knew if they'd drink enough, they wouldn't have to feel guilty about their good fortune."

''I'm surrounded by music i can't stand, I'm 5000 miles from home, I'm armed, and I'm drinking. I don't think you'd like my advice.''

''For you? I'll tell you what I got. I got a gun and if anybody thinks they're gonna take it from me they'd be dead wrong!''

"Hey look, there's a light at the end of this tunnel"
"There ain't no light at the end of this, and it ain't a tunnel, It's A HOLE!"


"I opened the door to the next circle of that low rent hell"

"Time moves forward and nothing changes"

''My problem? Wanna know what my problem is? You're turning humans into glue! That's what my fu*king problem is!''

"The mission was screaming suicide but I didn't give a damn, at least I'd die being a pain in the ass... "

"Were you drinking?" "You bet your ass I was!"

''So what am I, the button pusher?''

''Dumb sport... ''

''You'll walk... WITH A LIMP!''

''Look who it is, Mr. Strip Club Scumbag!''

''The Imperial Palace Hotel was a five star, bonafide sh*t hole. ''

"These guys made the NYPD look like Hare Krishnas"

"Locked. And then there was still the small matter of the traumatized girl sobbing behind the trash can."

''Look at me, i'd been contracted to protect two people, one was being held in some hole and the other was sitting at his desk with a bullet in his head, and the company that had it's logo on my pay check was burning on top of my head.''

''Looking back it was strange how the cops never showed up. But things had a habit of only making sense to me looking back long after I'd run out of time to fix them.''


''So much for a lazy Sunday afternoon. My next trick would be a high wire act, with a fiery pit for a safety net, it was nice that no one was shooting at me for a change, but i'd take a shot in the head over a slow roast on a spit any day of the god*amn week.''

''Place was like Fort Knox.''

(Becker laughing) "Something funny about dying?"

"I've felt like the avenging angel, I looked like a fat bald dude with a bad temper"

''I'd been shot more times than I could remember, but this felt different. Maybe fate was sending me a message. Trying to tell me my luck was finally about to run out. Or maybe I just severed an artery and was bleeding out like any number of fools who got shot playing with guns. Either way, I was failing fast. ''

''Vinnie Gognitti. I didn't think there was anything left of him to fill a grave. The poor son of a bi*ch. His antics had brought the once great house of Punchinello to its knees. And they were still struggling to stand up.''

"It was perfect everyone wanted a ticket on the Max Payne express"

“Do you think a pile of sh*t feels popular because it’s surrounded by flies?”

"This hangover might need some preventative medicine."

"I'd gone headfirst through a glass window. I deserved a little something for the pain."

"Just what my 10 different online doctors ordered."

"Scotch and pills, what could possibly go wrong?"

"I preferred to mix these with alcohol, but on this special occasion I'd make an exception."

"I'm a self righteous pain in the ass, but I'm not above embezzling office supplies."

"Day two of sobriety was going about as well as day one."

"If I filled my body with enough poison, maby I'd forget I'd added another dead girl to my rap sheet."

''I needed to get to my unhappy place.''

''My own private welcoming party.''

"They Didn't help with my sea legs but they sure as sh*t felt good"

"If I tought about this too much, I'd never get through it."

"You can't un-see something, but you can dull the effect."

"When you find yourself in hell, dance with the devil"

"Saying goodbye is painful."




Rest in Peace James McCaffrey, your voice helped me through some very difficult times.