I think that men of my generation - not me in particular - are among the most fortunate men in the universe.

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.

Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.

If you are ready for the secret, you already possess one half of it, therefore, you will readily recognize the other half the moment it reaches your mind.

Houses are built to live in and not to look on.

I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and possessions.

I have two bikes: a classic 1978 Yamaha SR500 and a more modern Suzuki SV650. I've been into cars and bikes since I was tiny.

I think that's what makes life interesting - the evolution of getting older, and it's kinda fascinating to me, the whole process.

I began to realize that by carefully selecting the depth of field and making it narrow, I could create a sense of movement and reality that was in fact not there.

A true teacher does not terrorize ignorant students, because a true teacher knows that it is his job to cure ignorance.

There is no hope the future will but turn the old sand in the falling glass of time.

Pride dies 20 minutes after death.