I thank my parents for the greatest gift of all: poverty

It's a sign of mediocrity when you demonstrate gratitude with moderation.

When I first saw a Fellini movie, I came out of the movie theatre and decided to become a lawyer! I thought to myself, it's impossible to make something so beautiful!

To laugh or cry is the most beautiful thing in the world

You're serving. You're not a servant. Serving is a supreme art. God is the first servant. God serves men but he's not a servant to men. - Eliseo Orefice

I would like to thank my parents in Vergaio, a little village in Italy. They gave me the biggest gift: poverty.

The exquisite truth is to believe in something that maybe you know is a fiction, but you believe in it willingly.

Sometimes poetry, it is incomprehensible. But we need incomprehensible stuff! It is very healthy to talk about incomprehensible things! It is very healthy! We need it!

My duty is to try to reach beauty. Cinema is emotion. When you laugh you cry.

The most important thing is to continue to be yourself. The day after the Oscars, you have to get on with your life. To be honest and true to yourself.

I would like to be Jupiter, and lie down in the firmament and make love to everybody.

Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.

I have always served the public to the best of my ability. Why? Because, like every other man, it is to my interest to do so.

Foreign powers do not seem to appreciate the true character of our government.

The only measure of what you believe is what you do. If you want to know what people believe, don't read what they write, don't ask what they believe, just observe what they do.

I make preparations both to live and to die every day, but with the emphasis on not dying, and on acting as if I was going to carry on living.

The moderation of people in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed temper, owing to the calm of their good fortune.

Memory is a cruel mistress with whom we all must learn to dance.

Ecstasy is a glimpse of the infinite; horror is full disclosure.

Wealth is a great sin in the eyes of God. Poverty is a great sin in the eyes of man.

Sometimes I'll be playing along and find I'm missing the strings. I'll worry about it for days until I notice that the pick has worn down to half its size.