As Claude LeLouche said, his favorite American director is Sergio Leone. Not because I would be American, but because I was dealing with subject matter that an American could have just as easily dealt with.

When one goes to see Modern Times, for instance, one understands much more about socialism than listening to the man who was then head of the Socialist movement in Italy.

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

It's difficult to find new solicitations, new expressions. But this is talking about filmmaking. Cinema.

The American public is a very specialized public.

I admit that some of my ideas may have turned out to be pessimistic in nature.

The American public is a very specialized public. The reason it is taken as a realistic film is because inside the fable, I've put that kind of reality in. And it could easily be called, instead of Once Upon a Time in America, Once Upon a Time There Was a Certain Kind of Cinema. Because it was also an homage to cinema.