Sarah Packard: I love you, Eddie.
Fast Eddie: You know, someday, Sarah, you're gonna settle down... you're gonna marry a college professor and you're gonna write a great book. Maybe about me. Huh? Fast Eddie Felson... hustler.
Sarah Packard: I love you.
Fast Eddie: You need the words?
Sarah Packard: Yes, I need them very much. If you ever say them I'll never let you take them back.
Fast Eddie: I'm shooting pool, Fats. When I miss, you can shoot.
Fast Eddie: Fats, let's you and me shoot a game of straight pool.
Minnesota Fats: Hundred dollars?
Fast Eddie: Well, you shoot big time pool, Fats. I mean, that's what everybody says: you shoot big time pool. Let's make it $200 a game.
Minnesota Fats: Now I know why they call you Fast Eddie.
Fast Eddie: I loved her, Bert. I traded her in on a pool game. But that wouldn't mean anything to you. Because who did you ever care about? Just win, win, you said, win, that's the important thing. You don't know what winnin' is, Bert. You're a loser. 'Cause you're dead inside, and you can't live unless you make everything else dead around ya.
Minnesota Fats: Do you like to gamble, Eddie? Gamble money on pool games?
Charlie Burns: How do you feel?
Fast Eddie: Fast and loose, man.
Charlie Burns: In the gut, I mean.
Fast Eddie: I feel tight, but good.
Sarah Packard: Eddie, look, I've got troubles... and I think maybe you've got troubles. Maybe it'd be better if we just leave each other alone.
Fast Eddie: I have my things over at the hotel. I'll bring them over later.
Sarah Packard: I'm not sure. I don't know.
Fast Eddie: Well, what do you want to know? And why?
Fast Eddie: How can I lose?
Fast Eddie: You can't see it, can you, Charlie? I mean, you've never been able to see it. I came after him. And I'm gonna get him. I'm goin' with him all the way. The pool game is not over until Minnesota Fats says it's over. Is it over, Fats?
Sarah Packard: I'm a college girl. Two days a week - Tuesdays and Thursdays - I go to college.
Fast Eddie: You don't look like a college girl.
Sarah Packard: I'm the emancipated type. Real emancipated.
Fast Eddie: No, I didn't mean that... whatever that means. I mean you just don't look young enough.
Sarah Packard: I'm not.
Fast Eddie: So why go to college?
Sarah Packard: Got nothing else to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Fast Eddie: What do you do on the other days?
Sarah Packard: I drink.
Fast Eddie: Fats, you can't run out on me.
Minnesota Fats: You watch me.
Fast Eddie: You saw me beat Minnesota Fats for eighteen thousand dollars.
Bert Gordon: Look, you wanna hustle pool, don't you? This game isn't like football. Nobody pays you for yardage. When you hustle you keep score real simple. The end of the game you count up your money. That's how you find out who's best. That's the only way.
Fast Eddie: No bar?
Cashier: No bar, no pinball machines, no bowling alleys, just pool... nothing else. This is Ames, mister.
Fast Eddie: You know, I got a hunch, fat man. I got a hunch it's me from here on in. One ball, corner pocket. I mean, that ever happen to you? You know, all of a sudden you feel like you can't miss? 'Cause I dreamed about this game, fat man. I dreamed about this game every night on the road. Five ball. You know, this is my table, man. I own it.
Fast Eddie: You sure don't leave much when you miss, do you, Fats?
Minnesota Fats: That's what the game's all about.
Bert Gordon: I don't think there's a pool player alive shoots better pool than I saw you shoot the other night at Ames. You got talent.
Fast Eddie: So I got talent. So what beat me?
Bert Gordon: Character.
