I began to understand that 'America' in reality belonged to the whole world and not just to Americans. The idea of America had already been invented by the philosophers, the vagabonds, the dispersed of this earth, long before the Spanish ships got there. Those whom we call Americans have only rented it for a time. If they behave badly, we can discover another 'America'. The contract can be canceled at any time.

The American public is a very specialized public.

I had never thought of making a western even as I was making it.

The function of the flashback is Freudian...You have to let them wander like the imagination or like a dream.

I think women have always been considered objects, especially in the genre of westerns.

I think even in American schools, they must be studying in a specialized manner.

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.