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

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.

Even when I read a book, if the book leaves me the possibility of finding certain solutions or working on my own toward a solution, I prefer that much more than if the book fills me with the answers, gives them to me directly.

There was also the myth of the western films. But my films are borrowed not from the story of the West in America but from the story of cinema.

I've shot films in Africa. I've shot in America - English is not my language.

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.

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