The world is in America. In Italy is only Italy. France is full of France. Germany is full of Germany. In a continent that contains the entire world, contradictions are, of course, constantly arising.

I've always had the sensation that people in America are always avant-garde. Very attentive to all the new innovations. But it's very specialized.

When I go to the cinema, I'm often frustrated because I can guess exactly what is going to happen about ten minutes into the screening. So, when I'm working on a subject, I'm always looking for the element of surprise.

My life, my reading, everything about me revolves around the cinema. So for me, cinema is life, and vice-versa.

I consciously chose a person like the bounty killer [of the Fistful trilogy] because he was the street sweeper of the desert, a man who put his life at risk exclusively for the money. I'm not saying that he went against the law, but he put himself within the wings of the law only when it was something that he could profit by.

My films are often characterized by the lack of women present in them, except for this last one [Once Upon a Time in America].

I think that men of my generation - not me in particular - are among the most fortunate men in the universe.