Virgil Tibbs: They call me MISTER Tibbs!
Chief Gillespie: I got the motive which is money and the body which is dead.
Gillespie: How much they pay you to do their police work? Tibbs: A hundred and sixty-two dollars, and thirty-nine cents per week. Gillespie: A hundred and sixty-two dollars and thirty-nine cents a week? Well boy! Sam, you take him outside but treat h...
Gillespie: [on telephone to Tibbs' chief] I do want to thank you for offering such a powerful piece of manpower as Virgil Tibbs.
Mrs. Leslie Colbert: I came by to make it as clear as I possibly can: that I do not want the Negro officer taken off this case. Mayor Webb Schubert: Negro officer? Chief Gillespie: Yeah, well he, uh... he comes from up North, you see, and he was, uh,...
Chief Gillespie: Just once in my life, I'm gonna own my temper. I'm telling you that you're gonna stay here. You're gonna stay here if I have to go inside and call your chief of police and have him remind you of what he told you to do. But I don't th...
[upon the suggestion that he may have murdered Colbert, Endicott slaps Tibbs across the face. Tibbs promptly slaps him back. Endicott is positively shocked] Eric Endicott: Gillespie? Chief Gillespie: Yeah. Eric Endicott: You saw it. Chief Gillespie: ...
Chief Gillespie: Mr. Tibbs! Well Mr. Woods take Mr. Tibbs! Take him down to the depot and I mean boy like now!
[last lines] Chief Gillespie: You take care, y'hear? Virgil Tibbs: Yeah.
Tibbs: Now listen, hear me good mama. Please. Don't make me have to send you to jail... There's white time in jail and there's colored time in jail. The worst kind of time you can do is colored time.
Gillespie: Whatcha hit him with? Tibbs: Hit whom? Gillespie: "Whom"? "Whom"? Well, you a northern boy? What's a northern boy like you doing all the way down here?
[first lines] Ofcr. Sam Wood: Where you keeping the pie tonight? Ralph Henshaw, diner counterman: I ate the last piece just before you came in.
Mayor Webb Schubert: Bill... what's made you change your mind about Tibbs? Gillespie: Who says I have? Mayor Webb Schubert: [referring to Tibbs slapping Endicott] Last Chief we had... he'd have shot Tibbs one second after he slapped Endicott, claim s...
Ofcr. Sam Wood: [to Virgil] Take me ten minutes to get a king size Coke and a wedge of pie. That is if that peckerwood ain't sold out yet.
[describing Chief Gillespie] Harvey Oberst: Got no more smile than a turnip.
[after Chief Gillespie convinced Virgil Tibbs to stay in town and finish the investigation, they both go to a mechanic's place to get Tibbs a car] Chief Gillespie: Jess. [Jess, a black mechanic, appears from under the car he is working on] Chief Gill...
Gillespie: You look at bodies all the time in Philadelphia. Why can't you look at this one? Tibbs: Why can't you look at it for yourself? Gillespie: Because I'm not an expert. OFFICER!
Tibbs: You're making a big mistake. Chief Gillespie: Don't you bet against it.
