“- Chon Wang: I got an idea: why don't I pretend I'm sick, and then you can attack the guard when they come in?
- Roy O'Bannon: Oh, you mean the sick prisoner routine? Does that still work in China? 'Cause here it's sorta been done to death.”
Jackie Chan - Chon Wang
Owen Wilson - Roy O'Bannon

“- Athos: You came to restrain me?
- D'Artagnan: I came to give you hope.”
John Malkovich - Athos
Gabriel Byrne - D'Artagnan

“There's not much chance I'm ever getting out of here. Those cops of yours are part of the reason. That's what we've got in common. I got my last armed robbery conviction behind them. The rest is my business.”
F. Murray Abraham - Virgil Cane

“- Jimmy Booth: The second way out, I need you guy's help, and that's under.
- Billy Hayes: You mean tunnel? Are you serious?
- Max: This is Shagmahr prison, not Stalag 17.
- Jimmy Booth: Well that's where you're wrong fuckface, because it's already built!”
Randy Quaid - Jimmy Booth
Brad Davis - Billy Hayes
Sir John Hurt - Max

“- Ed: You mean you busted out of jail.
- Evelle: No, ma'am. We released ourselves on our own recognizance.
- Gale: What Evelle here is trying to say is that we felt that the institution no longer had anything to offer us.”
Holly Hunter - Ed
William Forsythe - Evelle
John Goodman - Gale