- Robert Alan Hobbes: Lieutenant, you've got a whole big city here. The switchboard down there's loaded with calls, your file cabinets with complaints. You take care of the city. You let me take care of Artis Pierce.
- Detective Lt. Mike Stone: No, I won't. I can't lay a hand on you until you break the law, commit a crime. You know it, and I know it. But the crime you're about to commit... well, that crime's the worst crime of all.
- Robert Alan Hobbes: That's right. That's absolutely right. But Artis Pierce committed it first.
- Artis Pierce: [Confronting Hobbes, who has been stalking him] Now you stay outta my tracks, or you've just ordered yourself a box, man. You had your chance. You could've put me away. But you buckled. Now butt out, or they'll pick you off of the street with a broom and dustpan.