When I used Claudia [Cardinale] for example, in Once Upon a Time in the West, she represented the birth of American matriarchy. Because women had enormous weight in America.

Virginia Woolf was one example. She was called the "Lover of 100 Gangsters."

An important Italian critic once gave Fistful of Dollars a very bad review when it came out. Then he went to the university here [Rome] with Once Upon a Time in America. We showed it to 10,000 students. And while the man was speaking that day to the students, with me present, he said, "I have to state one thing. When I gave that review about Sergio's films, I should have taken into account that on Sergio Leone's passport, there should not be written whether the nationality is Italian or anything else. What should be written is: 'Nationality: Cinema.' "

I am searching as Diogenes did with his lantern for all of these wonderful human beings. I haven't found them yet.

I work with intuition. With interpreters. I have my own method. I know exactly what I want from actors. Sometimes, I even recite the role to the actor if it's not clear.

If there is an auteur who influenced me - and there is only one - that is Charlie Chaplin. And he never won an Oscar.

There was also the myth of the western films. But my films are borrowed not from the story of the West in America but from the story of cinema.