Quotes¶
Sourced by episode. Brief quotation for commentary only — see Contributing.
The thesis statements¶
"Lately I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over." — Tony, first therapy session, S1E1. The show's entire subject, stated in the first ten minutes. See Themes.
"It's all a big nothing." — Livia, to A.J. at a funeral, S2. Never refuted by the series.
"You probably don't even hear it when it happens." — Bobby, on dying, S6E78 "Soprano Home Movies." Chase cuts back to it in "The Blue Comet," and a large share of the audience takes it to Holsten's. See The Ending.
"Those who want respect, give respect." — Tony, repeatedly, always while demanding it.
Tony¶
"Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this." — S1E13
"A wrong decision is better than indecision."
"I get it!" — S6E83, shouted at a desert sunrise, having just suffocated his nephew.
"Every day is a gift." — post-coma, S6. Lasts about four episodes.
"There's an old Italian saying: you fuck up once, you lose two teeth."
"Remember the good times." — his last words to A.J., S6E86, half-remembered from Livia and got wrong.
Livia¶
"Poor you." — her signature construction, and the most efficient piece of characterization in the series.
"I gave my life to my children on a silver platter."
Paulie¶
"You know who had an ulcer? Napoleon. And he conquered the world."
"Sixteen Czechoslovakians. The guy was an interior decorator." — S3E37 "Pine Barrens." The most-quoted exchange in the series, and a telephone-game misunderstanding from start to finish. See Comedy.
"He was an interior decorator." — "His house looked like shit."
Silvio¶
"Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in." — Silvio's Godfather Part III impression, performed on request, for years, always slightly worse. See Mob Movies & Self-Awareness.
Junior¶
"I've got the ability. That's what I've got."
"That's nice." — S6, when Tony tries to make him remember that he and his brother once ran North Jersey. One of the saddest lines in the series.
Christopher¶
"The Irish guys win every hand." — S2E22, reporting hell. See Religion & Morality.
"I got no identity."
Carmela and Melfi¶
"I don't love you anymore. I don't want you. You're not sleeping in my bed, Tony." — Carmela, S4E52 "Whitecaps."
"You can never say you weren't told." — Dr. Krakower to Carmela, S3E33 "Second Opinion." The most morally direct scene in the series, delivered by a character who appears once.
"No." — Melfi, S3E30 "Employee of the Month," declining to tell Tony about her rapist. One word carrying the show's whole moral architecture.
The malapropisms¶
The show's signature comic register — men reaching for a word above their vocabulary, with nobody present who knows better.
"A revolving door of terror." — Little Carmine
"Create a little dysentery among the ranks." — Christopher
"Prostate with grief."
"The sacred and the propane." — Little Carmine
See Comedy.
Commonly misattributed¶
"Leave the gun, take the cannoli." Not this show. The Godfather (1972), improvised by Richard Castellano. It gets attributed to The Sopranos constantly because Silvio and the crew quote Godfather material so often.
"Say hello to my little friend." Scarface.
"Whaddaya gonna do?" Genuinely in the show, repeatedly — but it isn't a signature line so much as a verbal tic the writers gave to almost everyone, deliberately, as a way of characterizing a culture that treats fatalism as manners.
"Don't stop believin'." Journey, 1981. Selected by Tony from a tabletop jukebox in S6E86, and cut off mid-word. Chase has said the ceiling he was going for was exactly that phrase, simply and on the nose — which is not the ironic reading most people assume. See Music.
Contributing¶
Give the character and the episode code (S3E37). Flag anything commonly misattributed. Brief quotation for commentary is fine; transcribed scenes are not.