When I was sixteen or seventeen, I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a playwright. But everything I wrote, I thought, was weak. And I can remember falling asleep in tears because I had no talent the way I wanted to have.

Wine is so much more than a beverage. It's a romance, a story, a drama-all of those things that are basically putting on a show.

Art depends on luck and talent.

It's ironic that at age 32, at probably the greatest moment of my career, with The Godfather having such an enormous success, I wasn't even aware of it, because I was somewhere else under the deadline again.

Sequels are not done for the audience or cinema or the filmmakers. It's for the distributor. The film becomes a brand.

Movies are the art form most like man's imagination.

I still think Ned Beatty should've played Don Corleone.