I had a number of very strong personalities in my family. My father was a concert flutist, the solo flute for Toscanini.
Art depends on luck and talent.
Usually, the stuff that's your best idea or work is going to be attacked the most.
I believe that filmmaking - as, probably, is everything - is a game you should play with all your cards, and all your dice, and whatever else you've got. So, each time I make a movie, I give it everyt...
When I was going for my graduate degree, I decided I was going to make a feature film as my thesis. That's what I was famous for-that I had my thesis film be a feature film, which was 'You're a Big Bo...
I've been failing for like ten or eleven years. When it turns it'll turn. Right now I'm just tryin' to squeeze through a very tight financial period get the movie out and put my things in order.
As long as I can make lots of money in other businesses, I'll continue to subsidize my own work.
It takes no imagination to live within your means.
I have more of a vivid imagination than I have talent. I cook up ideas. It's just a characteristic.
We were raised in an Italian-American household, although we didn't speak Italian in the house. We were very proud of being Italian, and had Italian music, ate Italian food.
It's ironic that at age 32, at probably the greatest moment of my career, with The Godfather having such an enormous success, I wasn't even aware of it, because I was somewhere else under the deadline...
I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians.
I gladly, I voluntarily gave up the kind of commercial film career I had going as soon as I had enough money to finance my own films.
I think a sequel is a waste of money and time. I think movies should illuminate new stories.
I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing.
You have to really be courageous about your instincts and your ideas. Otherwise you'll just knuckle under, and things that might have been memorable will be lost.
Most Italians who came to this country are very patriotic. There was this exciting possibility that if you worked real hard, and you loved something, you could become successful.
I had a heartbreaking experience when I was 9. I always wanted to be a guard. The most wonderful girl in the world was a guard. When I got polio and then went back to school, they made me a guard. A t...
I'm no longer dependent on the movie business to make a living. So if I want to make movies as other old guys would play golf, I can.