I had always thought that the 'good,' and the 'bad' and the 'violent' did not exist in any absolute, essential sense. It seemed to me interesting to demystify these adjectives in the setting of a Western. An assassin can display a sublime altruism while a good man can kill with total indifference.

All the people I've met, many outside of cinema, knew everything perfectly about one thing or one subject or one area.

The American public is a very specialized public.

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

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

I was born with this bow tie made of celluloid on my collar.