The American public is a very specialized public.

When I was young, I believed in three things: Marxism, the redemptive power of cinema, and dynamite. Now I just believe in dynamite.

In my childhood, America was like a religion. Then, real-life Americans abruptly entered my life - in jeeps - and upset all my dreams.

My life, my reading, everything about me revolves around the cinema. So for me, cinema is life, and vice-versa.

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.

When you manage to express something with a look and the music instead of saying it with words or having the character speak, I think it's a more complete work.

Where life had no value, death, sometimes, had its price. That is why the bounty killers appeared.

Probably the greatest writer of westerns himself was Homer. His character were never all good or all bad. They're half and half, these characters, as all human beings are.

You see in Once Upon a Time in the West the whole film moves around her [Claudia Cardinale]. If you take her out, there's no more film. She's the central motor of the entire happening.

There are directors, and there are authors. I think I am more of an author than a director.

I can't see America any other way than with a European's eyes. It fascinates me and terrifies me at the same time.

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.

She thought: at this moment, the glass stem between his fingers feels just like the one between mine. We have this much in common.

Slavery was never abolished, it was only extended to include all the colors.

The pressure of survival in the big city will make you lose sight of your dream … Hang in there.

There is nothing new on earth / For a person who lives long and experiences much. / In my years of youthful wandering / I have seen crystallized people.

When I heard Coleman Hawkins, I learned to play ballads

You'll nip anybody who's coming at you with bullshit. You don't play around. You take this craft very seriously. It's what separates you, what separates an actor from an artist.

Life is serious. (Valerius) No, life is an adventure. It's thrilling and scary. Sometimes it's even a bit boring, but it should never be serious. (Tabitha)

You should be dynamic, and still be soft in the heart. You should stand against injustice and simultaneously, be compassionate within you, like a saint. Be a saint and a soldier, together

Love is eternal, the aspect may change, but not the essence.