GTA III was the game back in 2001. Playing it felt like getting away with something. Every other studio was still playing it safe with linear stories and hero tropes. Rockstar dropped gamers into a digital gutter called Liberty City and had them figure it out on their own. It was gritty and it was mean, an incredible moment in the evolution of video game graphics. There was no ‘correct’ way to play it, and it was completely revolutionary for its time.
The main character, Claude, didn’t say a single word the whole game, but the psychos, mob bosses, and thugs never shut up. The dialogue was revolutionary, creating a brand-new kind of storytelling and making you feel like you were part of the world. It amplified the open-world feeling.
Here are the most iconic quotes from GTA III that built the foundation for the franchise and gamers still remember, 25 years later.
The Story of GTA III
The whole story of the game starts with a bang. Your girlfriend, Catalina, shoots you during a bank heist and leaves you for the cops. You’re typical night in Liberty City. After you manage to break free during the prison transport, Claude starts his insane adventure in the mafia world. You spend the game between bosses, and help with tasks and missions that give you one more day in this cruel world. Salvatore Leone is a paranoid mafia leader. Yakuza’s Asuka Kasen is fighting for territory. And Donald Grove, the dirty billionaire who only cares about money. You’re not a hero, you are a gunman trying to survive.
Most Famous GTA III Quotes
- “I know a place on the edge of the Red Light District where we can lay low, but my hands are all messed up so you better drive, brother.” – 8-Ball – The very first line of the 3D era. Within ten seconds, the game tells you that you’re the guy who gets things done when the big shots can’t do it themselves.
- “I see a spark in your eye… and I’ve seen that spark before. It’s the spark of a man who’s about to betray me!” – Salvatore Leone – This is the paranoia of a mobster you expect from this place. Salvatore was the first villain in the series who felt like a bomb.
- “Nothing brings down real estate prices faster than a good old-fashioned gang war. Apart from an outbreak of plague, but that might be going too far in this case.” – Donald Love – This is just how the comedy in GTA Vice City was. It just showed how Donald Love didn’t really care about anything other than money and property. It proves that even in a mob game, the most dangerous criminals are those in suits and ties.
- “I’m an ambitious girl, Claude. And you? You’re just small-time.” – Catalina – That is the first piece of dialogue in the game’s opening cinematic. It’s said during the bank heist intro, right before she shoots Claude. It sets up the entire revenge plot in GTA III.
- “In this business, there are no friends, only people who haven’t betrayed you yet.”
- “I Know What You’re Thinking, Another Bent Cop. Well, It’s A Bent World.” –That iconic line is said by Ray Machowski, a corrupt LCPD detective you end up working for. This is Ray’s way of justifying his own corruption. He’s telling Claude that while he might be corrupt, he’s a product of a broken system.
- “Experience has taught me that men like you can be very loyal for the right price but groups of men get greedy”– Donald Love
- “Asuka, I’m a busy man. I’ve got things to do, people to see, places to go.” – Ray Machowski
- “Here, this rifle should help you pop some heads.” – 8 Ball
- “Go and introduce a bat to his face!” – Luigi
- “Oh, it’s you. Toni ain’t here. But he left ya one of his sugary love letters!”
- “No fancy cr*p.” – Toni Cipriani
- “Let’s teach these would-be-tough guys what it means to be tough!” – Toni Cipriani
- “I see nothing but good things for you, my boy.” – Salvatore Leone. This is ironic given how things went down between you two.
Random quotes: some of the best NPC lines in GTA III
The NPCs in GTA III were a different kind of weird, but gamers loved them for that. You could be running from the police with a bazooka in your hands, and you would hear someone on the sidewalk scream about his laundry or his sister. It was also pretty fun to hear what they had to say when you almost, or totally, drove them over.
- “You want the chainsaw, gringo?”
- “My mother’s my sister!”
- “You, off my planet!”
- “I see pain in your future!”
- “SOMEBODY CALL A MEDIC!”
- “Young man!”
- “I hate Saturdays.”
- “What are you doing? Giving birth?”
- “Yep, I’ve been drinking again.”
- “In the navy!”
- “No money, Mo problems.”
- “You can sail the 7 seas…”
- “I’m Chatty Kathy, and you’re listening to Chatterbox!”
