Thank you to Italy. That is a crazy country but beautiful.

There are contemporary artists that I hate with all my heart. These are provocateurs that are without feeling. Where is the real emotion?

I think cinema has this beautiful component. It's a universal language.

There's one thing that I like about Rome that was stated by Napoleon: that from sublime to pathetic is only one step away. And in Rome there's a constant shifting between sublime and pathetic.

The way I work with my cinematographer is not based on general principles, but the ideas are triggered by the locations where we shoot.

Wasting time is something that people do or feel all over the world, not just in Italy.

The fear of old age is something that one feels when they're younger. Once you get to being old, you're already there, so you don't even think about it anymore.

I don't use Twitter. I'm a serious person.

I usually don't say anything to the actors. It works better for me because when they come to the set, they are at the same time scared and excited because they are not well aware of what will happen.

I hibernate. I hibernate until the next project takes shape in my mind.

Andreotti had style and class; Berlusconi does not

With grace, you will succeed despite strong opposition.

Redundancy is my favourite business strategy.

[T]he West did not invent slavery

By the time the clever reaches the clouds, the genius is already on the stars.

It is the life in literature that acts upon life.

Speech is but the incorporation of thought.

You do not lament the loss of hair of one who has been beheaded.

I see history as really cyclical in terms of the intense idealism, and the desire to create a better life outside of societal norms.

More terrorists and extremists have been captured or killed in Pakistan than in any place in the world.

The gospel we preach must not be just something we hear from men or read from books or even conceived through our meditation. Unless it is delivered to us by God, it can serve no spiritual utility.