Mental violence is as bad as physical violence. You don't see that very often in movies, so it was a good subject to tackle.

I like playing roulette, I like dice. I grew up with gamblers.

The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices you make will shape your life forever.

Italian-Americans are not the Mafia.

My mother and father told me I was god. I was a good Italian boy who hung out with the same four guys. I was a little god.

My father always said, 'The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.'

When you feel good about the work you're doing, that's what's important, not the budget or anything like that. If you're happy about the actors you're working with, that's what's important.

I've always been successful. Now I'm famous and successful.

Yeah, I like to gamble.

I thought that if no one was going to give me a great part - and it was very difficult to break into film, obviously - then I'd write one myself.

Please, if you're making a movie, start out with a good script, at least! Please!

I am the best author of my life.

The world would be a sadder place without stories.

We do not go (to the theatre) like our ancestors to escape from the pressure of reality so much as to confirm our experience of it.

Nature is a volume of which God is the author.

My style was always to spread out rather than to move up.

If there is a heaven, it must be here on earth because the earth is so beautiful.

to be sure, marriage is all in all with the ladies; but with us gentlemen it's quite another thing!

We never exchange more than three words with a Friend in our lives on that level to which our thoughts and feelings almost habitually rise.

Life is so short. Grudges are a waste of time. Laugh when you can, apologise when you should, and trust God with what you cannot change.

Well, I outline fanatically. I am a long thinker and a slow writer, though I am trying to get faster.