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

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.

The important thing is to make a different world, to make a world that is not now. A real world, a genuine world, but one that allows myth to live. The myth is everything.

I think politics should be expressed in this way and not in other ways. And not just politics - sentiments, even certain states of being.

Whoever would like to look and see what someone is saying behind all the show, glitter, scenery, whatever it may be, and see what ideas are being expressed beyond and below and above that, can do that, as well.

It [film-making] really just has to do with my own ghosts and phantoms. And I have to say, in the end, it's just my way of seeing things.

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