There was also the myth of the western films. But my films are borrowed not from the story of the West in America but from the story of cinema.

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.

People are good because they are good in hiding their bad.

The earth is a spaceship. While you are here, enjoy the ride.

Modeling is a tough job, your co-workers are your rivals, it really puts a damper on your perspective of other girls.

I think we cannot have a double standard. We cannot see our art as different from the reality. We cannot use two different sets of judgment.

To do or not to do... that is the question.

I don't remember yesterday. I pretty much live in the moment.

Between yea and nay, how much difference is there?

And often enough, when we think we are protecting ourselves, we are struggling against our rescuer.

Death cancels all engagements.

Stories are attempts to share our values and beliefs. Storytelling is worthwhile when it tells what we stand for.