Robert De Niro Heat bar scene

    by Joycelpacheco: Robert De Niro

    Robert De Niro delivered one of the most memorable lines in Heat when he warned against getting attached to anything you are not willing to walk away from in 30 seconds flat. I have lived by that advice ever since I first saw the movie.

    Transcript (en)

    You looking to become a penologist? You looking to go back? You know, I chased down some crews, guys just looking to fuck up, get busted back. That you? You must have worked some dipshit crews. I worked all kinds. You see me doing thrill-seeker liquor store hold-ups with a Born to Lose tattoo on my chest? No, I do not. Right. I am never going back. Then don't take down scores. I do what I do best. I take scores. You do what you do best. Try to stop guys like me. So you never wanted a regular type life? The fuck is that? Barbecues and ballgames? Yeah. This regular type life, that your life? My life? No, my life. My life's a disaster zone. I got a stepdaughter so fucked up... because her real father's this large-type asshole. I got a wife. We're passing each other on the downslope of a marriage. My third. Because I spend all my time chasing guys like you around the block. That's my life. I told me one time, don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner Now if you around me and you gotta move when I move how do you expect to keep a marriage That's an interesting point. What are you, a monk? I have a woman. What do you tell her? I tell her I'm a salesman. So then if you spot me coming around that corner, you're just gonna walk out on this woman? Not say goodbye? That's the discipline. That's pretty vacant, no? Yeah, it is what it is. It's that or we both better go do something else, pal. I don't know how to do anything else. Neither do I. I don't much want to either. Neither do I. You know, I have this, uh, recurring dream. I'm sitting at this big banquet table, and all the victims of all the murders I ever worked are sitting at this table, and they're staring at me with these black eyeballs because they got eight ball hemorrhages from the head wounds. And there they are, these big balloon people, because I found them two weeks after they'd been under the bed. The neighbors reported the smell, and there they are, all of them just sitting there.