- Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes: Koko, this ain't PS 154. You ain't gotta raise your hand, man.
- Koko: I been reading this book...
- Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes: [Mockingly] Huh. You readin' now?
- Koko: Yeah. It's a it's a book on politics and the social conditions that created hip-hop. The Dodgers left Brooklyn, Robert Moses created the Cross Bronx Expressway, and white folks went running for the suburbs. This cat named Moynihan went and hollered at Nixon, and told the prez that maybe the inner city could benefit from the benign neglect...
- Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes: Benign what?
- Koko: It's... it's the benign neglect. What it means is this: Maybe if we just leave that Luke Cage cat alone, give him his side of the street, we take ours.
- Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes: [Cottonmouth shoots Koko] Benign neglect
- [laughs]
- Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes: This dishwasher thinks he can prove Harlem don't need me. Let's see how bad he really wants to wear the crown. You hit the boulevard and squeeze 'em hard. And when they start crying, talking about, "Why? Why?" You tell them to go talk to Luke Cage down at the barber shop. They're paying a Luke Cage stupidity tax.
- Bobby Fish: Seating everyone at this thing is gonna be the toughest move I've mastered since the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit. I mean I gotta put Estelle up front, 'cause she's been with him the longest, at least as far as the neighborhood knows. Keep her far away as hell from Charlene. She's real sly. Moves like a bishop on the diagonal at all times. Now, they both have to steer clear of Candy, who they both think is his cousin.
- Luke Cage: Candy?
- Bobby Fish: She rubs everyone the wrong way, but Pop. Who she rubs the right way, every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:45.
- Luke Cage: Looks like Shaft ain't had nothing on Henry Hunter. Pop was a mack.
- Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes: There he is. Dishwasher Lazarus. You want your old job back? Costs to be a savior. Ask Jesus.
- Luke Cage: You started all this. This is me finishing it.
- Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes: You want Harlem? It's expensive.
- Luke Cage: I don't want Harlem. I just want you to stop messing with it.
- Luke Cage: I need to find your daughter.
- Eddie Axton: She still carrying on about that ring? It ain't worth shit.
- Luke Cage: Maybe it reminds her of better times... back in the day. What about your father? Did he play the game?
- Eddie Axton: Of course. Baseball is a game passed from father to son. That's why you don't see no niggas playing the game no more. 'Cause all the fathers is gone.
- Misty Knight: You need to stop with this pissing contest before more people get killed.
- Luke Cage: Maybe if y'all stopped him in the first place, no one would've had to die.
- Misty Knight: I will get him the right way. The system will win.
- Luke Cage: Forget the system. Arrests lead to indictments. And indictments lead to pleas. There's always a bigger fish, a bigger angle. A slap on the wrist. Boom. Right back in business. I ain't going for that.
- Misty Knight: You just started World War III in there. And your ass might be bulletproof, but Harlem ain't.
- Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes: There he is. Dishwasher Lazarus. You want your old job back? It costs to be a savior. Ask Jesus.
- Luke Cage: You started all this. This is me finishing it.
- Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes: You want Harlem, it's expensive.
- Luke Cage: I don't want Harlem. I just want you to stop messing with it.
- Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes: It's my home. You don't know a damn thing about it.
- Soledad: Hey, you're late.
- Claire Temple: What? I got robbed. Some guy stole my bag; I had to whip his ass.
- Soledad: What were you thinking?
- Claire Temple: I was thinking I wanted my bag back.
- Soledad: He could've killed you.
- Claire Temple: Mami, please. I grew up here. If you don't fight back, they turn you into a doormat. You know who taught me that? You.
- Bobby Fish: You can't control what people say. Just be the best man that you can be. And always make sure they spell your name right.
- Luke Cage: [to one of Cottonmouth's thugs] You know my name?
- Alicia: That's Luke Cage, asshole.
- Luke Cage: The next time you say my name I'm coming for you. Now, when you wake up, I want you to tell everybody that you've been screwing with that they got nothing to fear from Cottonmouth, you understand?
- Thug: Wake up?
- [Luke knocks him out]
- Soledad: The world isn't the world anymore, mija. Aliens coming out of the sky. People with silver hammers. Green monsters. All I know is everything happens for a reason. And now, somehow you're a part of it. What do you call that?
- Claire Temple: The worst luck in the world.
- Soledad: It's called fate.