This section of my page lists several well-known, and some not very well-known, quotes of Billy the Kid, as well as quotes from some of his friends and enemies. If there's a specific quote you would like me to add, just e-mail me.
Special thanks to Betty Jay (bettyle@wcta.net), who suggested many of the quotes found on this page.
''Of course you know, George, I never meant for those birds to reach Lincoln alive.''---Billy the Kid to George Coe in regards to the deaths of Frank Baker and Billy Morton.
''Advise persons never to engage in killing.''---Billy the Kid, to a reporter after his capture at Stinking Springs.
''At least two-hundred men have been killed in Lincoln County during the past three years, but I did not kill all of them.''---Billy the Kid to a reporter for the Daily New Mexican newspaper after his capture at Stinking Springs.
''Hello Bob!''---Billy the Kid to Deputy Bob Olinger seconds before he killed him with his own shotgun, April 28, 1881.
''There's many a slip 'twix the cup and the lip.''---Billy the Kid.
''He never seemed to care much for money, except to buy cartridges with; then he would much prefer to gamble for them straight. Cartridges were scarce, and he always used about ten times as many as any one else.''---Frank Coe, referring to Billy the Kid.
''Oh, nothing. It was a game of two and I got there first.''---Billy the Kid to Milnor Rudolph in reference to the killing of Texas Joe Grant.
''People thought me bad before, but if ever I should get free, I'll let them know what bad means.''---Billy the Kid to a reporter from the Daily New Mexican after his capture at Stinking Springs.
''I wish...I wish...''---Charlie Bowdre to Sheriff-Elect Pat Garrett as he dies from a bullet wound fired by one of Garrett's posse at Stinking Springs, December 23, 1880.
''Pat, you son-of-a-bitch, they told me there was a hundred Texans here from the Canadian River! If I'd a-known there wasn't no more than this, you'd never have got me!''---Billy the Kid to Pat Garrett, immediatly after stepping out of the rock house at Stinking Springs and surrendering to Garrett's posse.
''Hello, doc! Thought I'd just drop in and see how you fellers in Vegas are behavin' yerselves!''---Billy the Kid to his friend Dr. J. H. Suftin, as he is taken by the Garrett posse into Las Vegas.
''What's the use of looking on the gloomy side of everything? The laugh's on me this time. Is the jail at Santa Fe any better than this? This is a terrible place to put a fellow in.''---Billy the Kid to a reporter in the Las Vegas jail after his capture at Stinking Springs.
''Aw, you ain't worth killing.''---Billy the Kid to John Chisum after Billy threatened to kill Chisum if he didn't pay him for fighting in the Lincoln County War.
''You're a damned liar! We all three shot at him. You and me fired one shot apiece and the Kid twice!''---Dirty Dave Rudabaugh to Billy Wilson in reference to the killing of Deputy James Carlyle after Wilson told Deputy James Bell that he didn't shoot at Carlyle.
''There's a mighty well-heeled man coming this way!''---John Middleton to the rest of the Regulators in reference to Buckshot Roberts approaching Blazer's Mills, April 4, 1878.
''I'm not afraid to die like a man fighting, but I would not like to be killed like a dog unarmed.''---Billy the Kid in a letter to Gov. Lew Wallace, March 1879.
''Billy never talked much of the past. He was always looking into the future.''---Frank Coe.
''Joe, I've been there too many times for you.''---Billy the Kid to the freshly dead Texas Joe Grant, January 10, 1880.
''¿Quien es? ¿Quien es?''---Billy the Kid's last words, allegedly, July 14, 1881.
''Aw, go to Hell you long-legged son-of-a-bitch!''---Tom O'Folliard to Sheriff-Elect Pat Garrett shortly after Garrett mortally wounded him, December 19, 1880.
''I don't care to open negotiations with a fight, but if you'll come at me three at a time, I'll whip the whole damned bunch of you!''---Billy the Kid to Jessie Evans, Jimmy Dolan, Billy Campbell, and Billy Mathews after Evans suggested to his companions that they kill Billy on site.
''Billy, if harm comes to you two, they'll have to kill me first.''---William McCloskey to Billy Morton in reference to the Regulators, shortly before they were both killed by the Regulators.
''What John? What John?''---John H. Tunstall's last words to John Middleton, just after Middleton told Tunstall to flee from the approaching Morton posse, February 18, 1878.
''I knew them both well and, in my opinion, Garrett was just as cold and hard a character as the Kid.''---Paulita Maxwell, referring to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
''Hurry up, boys, my knife is sharp and I feel like scalping someone.''---Willam Morton to the members of his sub-posse only a few hours before they killed John Tunstall on Feb. 18, 1878.
''Because I had the power.''---Sheriff William Brady, when asked why he arrested Fred Waite, Constable Atanacio Martinez, and William Bonney.
''William Bonney was incarcerated here first time December 22, 1878; second time March 21st, 1879, and hope I never will be again.''---Billy the Kid, as he wrote on the wooden door of the Lincoln County jail/pit.
''I have no wish to fight any more, indeed I have not raised an arm since your proclamation.''---Billy the Kid, in a letter to Gov. Lew Wallace, dated March 12, 1879.
''If you could trust Jesse Evans, you can trust me.''---Gov. Lew Wallce, in a letter to Billy the Kid, dated March 15, 1879.
''In return for your doing this [testifying], I will let you go scot free with a pardon in your pocket for all your misdeeds.''---Gov. Lew Wallace to Billy the Kid, March 17, 1879.
''A precious specimen named ‘The Kid,’ whom the sheriff is holding here in the Plaza, as it is called, is an object of tender regard. I heard singing and music the other night; going to the door, I found the minstrels of the village actually serenading the fellow in his prison.''---Gov. Lew Wallace, in a letter to Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz, March 31, 1879.
''I’m outlawed and it wasn’t long since I was a law and old Pat an outlaw. Funny thing, the law.''--Billy the Kid to Heiskell Jones, 1880.
''I have done everything that I promised you I would and you have done nothing that you promised me.''---Billy the Kid, in a letter to Gov. Lew Wallace, dated March 4, 1881.
''I can’t see how a fellow like him should expect any clemency from me.''---Gov. Lew Wallace to the Las Vegas Gazette, April 27, 1881
''Experience is a good but slow teacher and I think if I keep my mind, I will let every man do his own fighting so far as I am concerned and I will do my own.''---Charlie Bowdre in a letter to Joseph C. Lea, December 15, 1880.
''I wasn't the leader of any gang. I was for Billy all the time."---Billy the Kid to a Las Vegas reporter after his capture at Stinking Springs.
