Jim Garrison: About as subtle as a cockroach crawlin' across a white rug.
Jim Garrison: White is black, and black is white.
Senator Long: One pristine bullet? That dog don't hunt.
X: Fundamentally, people are suckers for the truth. And the truth is on your side, Bubba.
Jim Garrison: Back, and to the left... back, and to the left... back, and to the left.
Jim Garrison: "Treason doth never prosper," wrote an English poet, "What's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
Jim Garrison: Under the guise of a patriotic club-owner out to spare Jackie Kennedy from having to testify at trial, Jack Ruby is shown his way into an underground parking garage by one of his inside men on the Dallas Police Force, and when he is ready Lee Harvey Oswald is brought out like a sacrificial lamb and nicely disposed of as an enemy of the people.
Jim Garrison: Thank you for your time, David. I'm sorry this has to end inconveniently for you but I am going to have to detain you for further questioning by the FBI.
David Ferrie: Why, what's wrong?
Jim Garrison: David, I find your story simply not believable.
David Ferrie: Really? What part?
X: The organizing principle of any society, Mr. Garrison, is for war. The authority of the state over its people resides in its war powers. Kennedy wanted to end the Cold War in his second term. He wanted to call off the moon race and cooperate with the Soviets. He signed a treaty to ban nuclear testing. He refused to invade Cuba in 1962. He set out to withdraw from Vietnam. But all that ended on the 22nd of November, 1963.
X: As early as 1961, they knew Kennedy was not going to go to war in South-East Asia. Like Caesar, he is surrounded by enemies, and something's underway, but it has no face, but everybody in the loop knows.
X: That's the real question isn't it: why? The how and the who is just scenery for the public. Oswald, Ruby, Cuba, The Mafia, keeps 'em guessing like some kind of parlor game, prevents 'em from asking the most important question: why? Why was Kennedy Killed? Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up? Who?
David Ferrie: Oh man, why don't you fuckin' stop it? Shit, this is too fuckin' big for you, you know that? Who did the president, who killed Kennedy, fuck man! It's a mystery! It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma! The fuckin' shooters don't even know! Don't you get it?
Guy Bannister: Camelot in smithereens.
Title card: A Congressional Investigation from 1976-1979 found a "probable conspiracy" in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and recommended the Justice Department investigate further. As of 1991, the Justice Department has done nothing.
Bill Brousard: This is Louisiana, chief! I mean, how do you know who your daddy is? Because your mama told you so?
Numa Bertel: There's a lot of smoke there, but there's some fire.
Jim Garrison: "One may smile and smile and be a villain."
Jim Garrison: The war is the biggest business in America, worth $ 80 billion a year.
Jim Garrison: The FBI says they can prove it through physics in a nuclear laboratory. Of course they can prove it. Theoretical physics can also prove that an elephant can hang off a cliff with its tail tied to a daisy! But use your eyes, your common sense.
Jim Garrison: They killed Robert F. Kennedy. He won, and they killed him. They shot him down.
Liz Garrison: Oh God. Both of them? They got both brothers?
Answer: No. The argument which mentions was the first closing argument by an assistant to Garrison and in it he mentions "back and to the left" once but not the multiple statements shown in the movie. The actual transcripts are available on line.