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Quotes on “necessary violence”

The Godfather I

• After Don Corleone has been shot Tom Hagen says to Sonny:
  • “shooting your father was business, not personal.”
• When Michael promises to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, he adds:
  • “It’s not personal, Sonny, this is strictly business.”

Goodfellas and Wiseguy

• In Goodfellas:
  • “Hits never bothered Jimmy: it was business.”
• In the book on which Goodfellas is based, Wiseguy:
  • Paul Vario “abhorred unnecessary violence, mainly because it was bad for business” (16).

New Jack City

• In New Jack City Nino Brown, head of the black Mafia tells an undercover cop a story about his youth in LA, how he was asked to prove his guts by killing an innocent victim.
• At the end of his story he adds: “You must think I’m a demon, ah?...”
• The cop: “I guess what you was doing... it was like business right, it wasn’t personal....”
• Nino: “My brother... it’s always business, never personal.”

Underboss

• From Underboss, the confessions of Sammy the Bull written by Peter Maas:
  • “For him [he’s talking about the guy that put a bomb under Frankie DeCicco’s car], it was business, a master Cosa Nostra double-cross scheme, nothing personal” (210).