The best thing on translation was said by Cervantes: translation is the other side of a tapestry.

The truth is at the bottom of a well. You look in a well, and you see the sun or the moon, but if you jump in, there's no longer the sun or the moon; there's the truth. Leonardo Sciascia

All of Sicily is a dimension of the imagination.

A sort of melancholy, and regret, seizes us every time we meet a sophisticated, adulterated idiot. Oh the nice fools of yestertime! Genuine, natural. Like homemade bread.

I hate and detest Sicily in so far as I love it, and in so far as it does not respond to the kind of love I would like to have for it.

Reality is always richer, more unpredictable than our deductions

…And the sound of the sea, like the wild-animal breath of the world itself, frightened them as it gasped and died at their feet.

Truth is important than anything. But you have to know how to handle it well.

You can't love someone just by looking at them. That is lust. Not saying love can't come fast, but it doesn't come first.

Character is greatness inside out.

I don't even talk about whether or not racial profiling is legal. I just don't think racial profiling is a particularly good law enforcement tool.

Economics and ethics have little in common.

Some people feel with their heads and think with their hearts.

There is nothing that needs to be said in an unkind manner.

Suffering teaches us only that we suffer. Joy shows us which way to go.

Directing made me realise what I do as an actor that's extraneous, it focuses your mind on story, story, story.

If you have the stomach for stocks, but neither the time nor the inclination to do the homework, invest in equity mutual funds.