- Senator Hays Stowe: Look, I'm talking about political realities today. I'm not condoning them. A man evades a question, he's got something to hide. That's a political reality. I don't like it any better than you do.
- Yaeger: If you don't mind a little advice from an old hand down here. If I were you, I'd get up in front of that committee and tell them everything you know.
- Jordan Boyle: Mentioning you?
- Yaeger: Sure. Mention me. I haven't done anything. Neither have you. It's an innocuous business deal. But if you let them have their way, they'll build a case on innuendo that'll make you look like Dillinger. What have you got to hide? Nothing.
- Jordan Boyle: [looking over the drawings of the proposed development] This is laid out in complete detail like Hitler did in Mein Kampf. It's a city. A whole stinking city!
- Yaeger: Well, I guess so. Big oaks from little acorns grow and all that. But it's ten years away if it ever happens.
- Jordan Boyle: What are they planning to call it, the Big M? Muscle Junction? Syndicate City?
- Yaeger: Really, Jordan, that's comic book talk.
- Yaeger: Jordan, friend, what would the Mob want with a lemon like that munitions company? Now, if this were the '30s, I'd say they needed the ammunition.
- Gov. George Keller: There's a defense plant supposed to go up in Harlan County, a part of our state just crying for a shot of new blood. Five thousand new jobs! Plus the growth that will naturally surround it. Like a stone on a pool, Hays, all the ripples mean jobs. Now, I'm not gonna go up to some scratch farmer in Harlan County and tell him that he can't feed his kids after all because somebody says that somebody else may belong to something called the Mob. Show me some proof! That's my motto.
- Collie Ford: And it's not that I'm a crusader like you say. Tapping those keys just happens to be my racket, just like you've got yours. Only there's one difference, you see. I've paid my dues all along. I'm all paid up!
- Jordan Boyle: What you need is a good laugh, and I'm just the guy to give it to you. Collie Ford.
- Senator Hays Stowe: [Distractedly] That's right. Collie Ford. What did you learn?
- Jordan Boyle: Well, it turns out the article isn't about you at all. Meet public enemy number one, me, Machine Gun Boyle!
- [Stowe's face is blank, no response]
- Jordan Boyle: You don't seem to think that's very funny.
- Collie Ford: This is going to be big. And it's gonna be big for me too. It's gonna give me a little bigger slice of that old American apple pie. Money and success! And just like you and everyone else in this country, I'm gonna take it! And I'm going to pass it on to my wife and kids. And you can't match that, Mr. Boyle.