"The Kid" had a lurking devil in him; it was a good-humored, jovial imp, or a cruel and blood-thirsty fiend, as circumstances prompted. Circumstances favored the worser angel, and "the Kid" fell. - Pat Garret in his book, The Authentic Life of Billy, The Kid.

¿Quien es? ¿Quien es? - Billy the Kid's last words, allegedly, July 14, 1881.

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.

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.

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.

Billy never talked much of the past. He was always looking into the future. - Frank Coe.

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.

Hello Bob! - Billy the Kid to Deputy Bob Olinger seconds before he killed him with his own shotgun, April 28, 1881.

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.

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

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 sight.

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 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.

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.

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.

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'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.

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.

Joe, I've been there too many times for you. - Billy the Kid to the freshly dead Texas Joe Grant, January 10, 1880.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There's many a slip 'twix the cup and the lip. - Billy the Kid.

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.

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.