How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"I want a man to clean up this pig-sty of a Poisonville for me, to smoke out the rats, little and big. It's a man's job. Are you a man?"
"What's the use getting poetic about it?" I growled. "If you've got a fairly honest piece of work to be done in my line, and you want to pay a decent price, maybe I'll take it on. But a lot of foolishness about smoking rats and pig-pens doesn't mean anything to me."
"All right. I want Poisonville emptied of its crooks and grafters. Is that plain enough language for you?" (5.19)
When Elihu Willsson hires the Op to clean up Personville, the Op is only too happy to oblige, as long as Elihu promises to let the Op use whatever methods he wants to accomplish his goal. Only a stranger like the Op would be able to tackle this "man's job" of cleaning up Poisonville because the Op has no selfish motives tied to the town. None of the gangsters want the Op to succeed because they want to stay in power. The Op is literally the only person in Poisonville who is in a position to rid the city of its crime.
Quote #2
"I'm able to take care of myself."
"Maybe. But you know the racket's too good to last. You've had the cream of the pickings. Now it's get-away day." (8.46)
The Op tries to warn Whisper that his gambling racket won't last much longer. Whisper is only one among four other rival gangs competing for power. The Op is out to try and destroy every single faction, and he uses Whisper as his pawn to get the ball rolling.
Quote #3
"What's your idea of how to go about purifying our village?"
[…] "The closest I've got to an idea is to dig up any and all the dirty work I can that might implicate the others, and run it out. Maybe I'll advertise—Crime Wanted—Male or Female. If they're as crooked as I think they are I shouldn't have a lot of trouble finding a job or two that I can hang on them." (10.76)
The Op jokes with Dinah that Poisonville is so corrupt that all he has to do is put an ad in the paper requesting the services of a criminal, and he'll be knee-deep in crime. But jokes aside, the Op's words here are pretty spot on. There isn't a single character in the pages of the novel who has completely clean hands, except for Donald who is murdered before we even meet him. Can you think of anyone in the novel who isn't involved in any crime whatsoever?