My discussion is one that has gone all the way from Fistful of Dollars through Once Upon a Time in America. But if you look closely at all these films, you find in them the same meanings, the same humor, the same point of view, and, also, the same pains.

If a director takes the time to document - to step back to observe - I think it I more honest. Because it has to be the public that makes the conclusions and who, possibly, resolves the situation.

It's very easy with the camera to show the positive side of something.

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

The American public is a very specialized public. The reason it is taken as a realistic film is because inside the fable, I've put that kind of reality in. And it could easily be called, instead of Once Upon a Time in America, Once Upon a Time There Was a Certain Kind of Cinema. Because it was also an homage to cinema.

I realized than an author cannot also be a producer.

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