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

We're talking a very cultivated people, but I found as cultivated as they were, they were uninformed about the personages who weren't American. They knew everything about America, but much less about other countries.

From Ennio [Morricone] I ask for themes that clothe my characters easily. He's never read a script of mine to compose the music, because many times he's composed the music before the script is ever written.

Women had enormous weight in America. And they still have. Because they are truly the padrone [owners, masters] of America.

I never worry about what they think about me. Because I feel so far away from what my Italian colleagues have done that I almost automatically become an isolated director.

Just go to Disneyland. You have the impact of how the Americans think, how they dream, what they desire, how they have a good time, what they prefer. I associate this with young people. But many times I think this infantile quality is much better than the false, incomplete concept of adulthood.

It is clear that the vehicle of the western was a very interesting vehicle for me to contraband some of my ideas.