- Elizabeth Sloane: Lobbying is about foresight. About anticipating your opponent's moves and devising counter measures. The winner plots one step ahead of the opposition. And plays her trump card just after they play theirs. It's about making sure you surprise them. And they don't surprise you.
- Elizabeth Sloane: Career suicide's not so bad when you consider the alternative is suicide by career.
- Rodolfo Schmidt: Dildos are illegal in Texas, but Joe Public can walk into a sports store and walk out with a shotgun.
- Elizabeth Sloane: That would explain the low rate of dildo-related murders in Texas.
- Cynthia: That is so cynical
- Elizabeth Sloane: Cynical is a word used by Pollyannas to denote an absence of the naiveté they so keenly exhibit.
- Esme Manucharian: You crossed the line when you stopped treating people with respect. You're smart enough to know that. You just don't care.
- Jane Molloy: I'd like to discuss my future.
- Pat Connors: This is hardly the time, cookie.
- Jane Molloy: Actually, it is the time.
- Pat Connors: The fuck is this?
- Jane Molloy: My resignation. Academia is more my scene.
- Elizabeth Sloane: Forde, human interaction is an exchange, my money for your...
- Forde: Dick.
- Elizabeth Sloane: I was gonna say skill-set. But that's only exchange I'm willing to make.
- Forde: You sound like a banker.
- Elizabeth Sloane: Ramirez, how many TEC-9s do you own again?
- Ramirez: Enough to defend my property. Plus two more to piss off the lefties.
- Esme Manucharian: I'll keep fighting, Elizabeth. Whenever I can make a difference. And as far as possible away from you.
- Daniel Posner: You look good.
- Elizabeth Sloane: Prison's not so bad if you don't have a penis. The guys shank each other, we form self-help groups. There's a black market economy in lip gloss.
- [first lines]
- Elizabeth Sloane: [to the camera] Lobbying is about foresight. About anticipating your opponent's moves and devising countermeasures. The winner plots one step ahead of the opposition, and plays her trump card just after they play theirs.
- Daniel Posner: You better not say that while you're in there.
- Elizabeth Sloane: It's about making sure you surprise them, and they don't surprise you.
- Elizabeth Sloane: It's good practice to keep your circle small. In this town, no matter where you are, you're never more than two feet from a rat.