The Usual Suspects Good vs. Evil Quotes

How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Usual Suspects.

Quote #1

KOVASH: Why are you just standing there, you idiot? I'm not speaking English am I? Wouldn't it make sense to find someone who could talk to me so you could find the person that set me on fire, perhaps? He is the Devil. You've never seen anyone like Keyser Söze in all your miserable life, you idiot. Keyser Söze. Do you at least understand that? Keyser Söze. The Devil himself. (Translation Source)

If you don't remember these lines from the movie, it's because they were spoken in Hungarian without subtitles. Also, since we're getting it from someone who isn't Verbal, we realize that Keyser Söze could really be everything he's cracked up to be—this nefarious incarnation of evil, akin to the Devil himself. Verbal expands on this idea, but we don't know how far we can trust him. But Kovash is probably more trustworthy.

Quote #2

KUJAN: Let me tell you something. I know Dean Keaton. I've been investigating him for three years. The guy I know is a cold-blooded bastard. N.Y.P.D. indicted him on three counts of murder before he was kicked off the force, so don't sell me the hooker with the heart of gold... Keaton was under indictment a total of seven times when he was on the force. In every case, witnesses either reversed their testimony to the grand jury or died before they could testify. When they finally did nail him for fraud, he spent five years in Sing Sing. He killed three prisoners inside - one with a knife in the tailbone while he strangled him death.

In contrast to Verbal's story, Kujan says Keaton was really a total monster. Verbal gives us a more human, less evil version of Keaton, but it turns out that this is a fiction. Keaton probably was just as bad as Kujan makes him out to be.

Quote #3

VERBAL: He lets the last Hungarian go, and he goes running. He waits until his wife and kids are in the ground and he goes after the rest of the mob. He kills their kids, he kills their wives, he kills their parents and their parents' friends. He burns down the houses they live in and the stores they work in, he kills people that owe them money. And like that he was gone. Underground. No one has ever seen him again. He becomes a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night. If you rat on your pop, Keyser Söze will get you. And nobody really ever believes.

The way Verbal describes Keyser Söze makes us think that Söze is a total monster—an epitome of evil. But, when we realize that Verbal is Keyser Söze, it occurs to us that he might just be pumping up his own legend by telling this story. Of course, he might be telling the truth too—he did kill Keaton's girlfriend, Edie (apparently).