It seems to me that any sensible person must see that violence does not change the world and if it does, then only temporarily.

My father had this mythological sense of the old New York, and he used to tell me stories about these old gangs, particularly the Forty Thieves in the Fourth Ward.

More personal films, you could make them, but your budgets would be cut down.

Popular music formed the soundtrack of my life.

I think all of us, under certain circumstances, could be capable of some very despicable acts. And that's why, over the years, in my movies I've had characters who didn't care what people thought about them. We try to be as true to them as possible and maybe see part of ourselves in there that we may not like.

You don't make pictures for Oscars.

I mean, music totally comes from your soul.

I grew up in the Lower East Side, an Italian American - more Sicilian, actually.

If I'm not complaining, I'm not having a good time, hah hah!

Very often I've known people who wouldn't say a word to each other, but they'd go to see movies together and experience life that way.

There must be people who remember World War II and the Holocaust who can help us get out of this rut.

Any film, or to me any creative endeavour, no matter who you're working with, is, in many cases, a wonderful experience.

Sometimes when you're heavy into the shooting or editing of a picture, you get to the point where you don't know if you could ever do it again.

Eradicating a religion of kindness is, I think, a terrible thing for the Chinese to attempt.

There are two kinds of power you have to fight. The first is the money, and that's just our system. The other is the people close around you, knowing when to accept their criticism, knowing when to say no.

The cinema began with a passionate, physical relationship between celluloid and the artists and craftsmen and technicians who handled it, manipulated it, and came to know it the way a lover comes to know every inch of the body of the beloved. No matter where the cinema goes, we cannot afford to lose sight of its beginnings.

I love studying Ancient History and seeing how empires rise and fall, sowing the seeds of their own destruction.

When I was growing up, I don't remember being told that America was created so that everyone could get rich. I remember being told it was about opportunity and the pursuit of happiness. Not happiness itself, but the pursuit.

Our world is so glutted with useless information, images, useless images, sounds, all this sort of thing. It's a cacophony, it's like a madness I think that's been happening in the past twenty-five years. And I think anything that can help a person sit in a room alone and not worry about it is good.

Food tells you everything about the way people live and who they are.

My whole life has been movies and religion. That's it. Nothing else.

If your mother cooks Italian food, why should you go to a restaurant?

When I'm making a film, I'm the audience.

And as I've gotten older, I've had more of a tendency to look for people who live by kindness, tolerance, compassion, a gentler way of looking at things.