A palladium-catalyzed chelation-assisted direct aldehyde C-H bond amidation of quinoline-8-carbaldehydes with an amine was developed under mild reaction conditions. A wide range of amides were obtained in good to excellent yields from aldehyde with a variety of aniline derivatives and aliphatic amines. Our methodology was successfully applied to synthesize known DNA intercalating agents and can be easily scaled up to a gram scale.