25 Quotes by Joseph D. Pistone

You have to have faith and confidence in yourself, that you are better than the bad guys you're dealing with. You have to have a lot of patience.

I do a lot of lecturing, at colleges and police schools, and I always get the same questions: 'Do they really kill you? What do they do with the money? How do you become a wiseguy?'

I was a street guy. I mean, I grew up in an Italian neighborhood with mob guys around. Where I grew up, you gambled, you shot dice, you played cards, you went to the track. So the mob to me was not strange, it was not like I was an F.B.I. agent from Salt Lake City.

One thing I take great pride in is that my case was the one that started the decline of the Mafia.

I like horses.

I had no sense of guilt. All during the course of the operation, I knew it was a job.

I didn't try to be a tough guy. I didn't try to be a big mobster. I was who I was. I didn't stop doing what I normally did. I worked out. I lifted weights. I ran. That's what I usually did.

I knew how wiseguys acted. I knew the mentality. I knew things to do and not to do. Keep your mouth shut at certain times. Don't get involved in things that don't concern you. Walk away from conversations and situations that aren't your business, before anybody asks you to take a hike.

What I learned about the mob wasn't through lectures at the academy.