Roark: Ever seen a man executed?
Jake: No.
Roark: What I suggest is you go to an execution, and see a man be killed. You watch him die, and you watch him beg!

Jake: I am a liberal Row-Ark. What I am not is a card-carrying ACLU radical.

Lucien: It ain't easy saving the world, even one case at a time.

Carl Lee: Yes, they deserved to die! I hope they burn in hell!

Jake: If this is a party, boys, where's the chips and beer? Otherwise, your being here seems a bit like illegal client solicitation, what with Carl Lee already having a lawyer and all.

Lucien: You wanted this case, well you've got it. It isn't easy saving the world even one case at a time, but you stick with it. You just might have a knack for it. Don't do what I did. Don't quit.
Jake: What are you talking about, quit. You're a hero Lucien.
Lucien: Hero my ass. Do you think the world needed me beating cops heads on that picket line. I was needed here. In that courtroom. And I let them push me, I gave them an excuse to kick me out and now I can never plead a case in there again. But you can. You're an attorney. Be proud. You job is to find justice no matter how well she may hide herself from you. So you go on in there and you do your job.

Carl Lee: You're white, and I'm black. See Jake, you think just like them. That's why I picked you. You're one of them, don't you see? Oh, you think you ain't 'cause you eat in Claude's and you out there trying to get me off on TV talking about black and white. But the fact is you're just like all the rest of them. When you look at me, you don't see a man, you see a black man.

Roark: Did I mention that my father's filthy rich and I'll be working for free?

Lucien: If you win this case, justice will prevail, and if you lose, justice will also prevail. Now that is a strange case.

Jake: I need a drink.
Lucien: At three o'clock in the afternoon? What would your wife think?
Jake: I'm my own man, Lucien. I drink when I want to.
Lucien: When did she leave town?
Jake: This morning.

Roark: Do you want me to stay?
Jake: Yeah, I want you to stay. So you'd better go.

Roark: I keep thinking, what would Jake do? What would my father do? What would Lucien do?
Harry Rex: Well, see, there's your problem. What you should be thinking is, what would Harry Rex do?
Roark: What would Harry Rex do?
Harry Rex: Cheat. Cheat like crazy.

Harry Rex: Lucien, I thought you were dead.
Lucien: I'm trying.

Ethel: Will you help an old lady to her car?
Lucien: You don't need any help, Ethel. But I'd be honored to escort you to your vehicle.

Freddie Lee: You can't blame a nigger for being a nigger, no more than you can blame a dog for being a dog. But a whore like you, co-mingling with mongrels, betraying your own. That makes you worse than a nigger. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll leave you tied up here naked. First, it'll just be bugs eating at ya. One day, maybe two. That sun's gonna be cooking you. And animals... they're gonna pick on your stink. They'll come looking for something to eat.
Ellen: Carl Lee Hailey should've shot you too.

Jake: Deputy Looney, do you think Carl Lee shooting you was intentional?
Deputy Looney: No sir. It was an accident.
Carl Lee: *mouths* Ask him!
Jake: Do you think he should be punished for shooting you?
Deputy Looney: No, sir. I hold no ill will toward the man. He did what I would have done.
Jake: What do you mean by that?
Deputy Looney: I mean, I don't blame him for what he did. Those boys raped his little girl.
Buckley: Objection, your Honor! The witness's opinion on this matter is irrelevant.
Jake: Your Honor, I belive Deputy Looney has earned the right to speak here today.
Judge Noose: Overruled. Continue.
Jake: Go ahead, Dwayne.
Deputy Looney: I got a little girl. Somebody rapes her, he's a dead dog. I'll blow him away just like Carl Lee did.
Buckley: Objection your Honor!
Jake: Do you think the jury should convict Carl Lee Hailey?
Judge Noose: Don't answer that question.
Deputy Looney: He's a hero. You turn him loose.

Jake: I want to tell you a story. I'm going to ask you all to close your eyes while I tell you the story. I want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to yourselves. Go ahead. Close your eyes, please. This is a story about a little girl walking home from the grocery store one sunny afternoon. I want you to picture this little girl. Suddenly a truck races up. Two men jump out and grab her. They drag her into a nearby field and they tie her up and they rip her clothes from her body. Now they climb on. First one, then the other, raping her, shattering everything innocent and pure with a vicious thrust in a fog of drunken breath and sweat. And when they're done, after they've killed her tiny womb, murdered any chance for her to have children, to have life beyond her own, they decide to use her for target practice. They start throwing full beer cans at her. They throw them so hard that it tears the flesh all the way to her bones. Then they urinate on her. Now comes the hanging. They have a rope. They tie a noose. Imagine the noose going tight around her neck and with a sudden blinding jerk she's pulled into the air and her feet and legs go kicking. They don't find the ground. The hanging branch isn't strong enough. It snaps and she falls back to the earth. So they pick her up, throw her in the back of the truck and drive out to Foggy Creek Bridge. Pitch her over the edge. And she drops some thirty feet down to the creek bottom below. Can you see her? Her raped, beaten, broken body soaked in their urine, soaked in their semen, soaked in her blood, left to die. Can you see her? I want you to picture that little girl. Now imagine she's white.