Mario Puzo was born into an Italian immigrant family on October 15, 1920, in Hell’s Kitchen on Manhattan’s West Side, New York, the USA. His father was a railway trackman. He lived with his six brothers and sisters above the railway yards. They were raised by his tough and illiterate Italian mother.
At an early age, Puzo discovered that he was attracted to public libraries and read all the books he could lay hands on, which finally, in his later life led him to write. His boyhood dream was to be a writer. During World War II, he served in the US Air Force stationed in East Asia and Germany. He studied at New School for Social Research, New York and at Columbia University. He then worked for 20 years as an administrative assistant in government offices in New York and overseas. In 1946, he married Erika Lina Broske. Puzo met her during World War II. She was very co-operative, but she wanted him to write. She didn’t like when Puzo wasted away his days lying down on a sofa staring at the ceiling, doing nothing. They had three sons and two daughters.
Puzo’s life has been the epitome of the Great American Dream. The child of Italian immigrants reared in the Roaring ’20s; the teen years in a tough Hell’s kitchen neighborhood; military duty in World War II, going to school using the GI Bill at City College; and working as an apprentice writer cracking out pulp tales for a slew of non-familiar magazines.
His first book, Dark Arena, appeared in 1955, when he was 35. His next venture was The Fortunate Pilgrim in 1964. Though both these books got good reviews, there were few takers. His second novel sold fewer than 5,000 copies and Puzo, seeking the fame and fortune he felt he deserved as a writer, set out to write a best seller. He started work on The Godfather when he was 45, with $ 20,000 in debt and a wife with five kids to support. Over the years it sold more than 21 million copies. The monumental success of The Godfather was quite a leap for an unpretentious and humble beginning.
‘Money’ The All Important Aspect of His Life
Apart from being a writer, he wanted to earn mega bucks. In his interview on Larry King Live (CNN) on August 2, 1996, he said, "I think it’s (The Fortunate Pilgrim) my best book. So, I didn’t make any money and I looked around and I said, ‘Gee, I’ve got’ – you know, I was working as a government clerk, and then I was working on the magazines, the adventure magazines and I figured – I had five kids and I thought, ‘I’d better make some money’." Another question King asked him was when screenplays to novels are apples and oranges why did he being a novelist agree to write a screenplay. He said, "For the money. Well, I mean it – and as I said before, you know, it’s-it’s-it - those screenwriters that are writing out there, they’ve got a tough job, you know, but they make a very good living. And to me, you know, if you are writing I think long novels that take four or five years – you sit down and write a screenplay and you do it in two or three months, and they give you enormous amounts of money and you can’t – you can’t say no."
Puzo decided to write something that would make enough money for him to support his family. Although he had no personal knowledge of organized crime, a thorough research provided him the necessary details and The Godfather, which depicted strong familial bonds as well as criminal activities, and it was a phenomenal success.
A Punch By Sinatra
In The Godfather the character of singer Johnny Fontane has been assumed by many to be based on Frank Sinatra. Before the book hit the stands, the publisher received a letter from Sinatra’s lawyers demanding to see the manuscript, which they politely refused. Frank Sinatra was rated as one of the 10 most famous people in the world.
In the movie, the character of Fontane was portrayed with complete sympathy and his hang-ups. Though Puzo considered it to be depicting "the inner innocence of the character", he said, "I could also see that if Sinatra thought the character was himself, he might not like it – the book – or me." But in spite of that a few people tried to bring them together. At Elaine’s in New York, once Sinatra was at the bar while Puzo was at the table. Elaine asked if Puzo would object meeting Sinatra. Though Puzo agreed, the singer refused.
A year later, while he was working on the script in Hollywood, Puzo was invited to his producer friend’s birthday party at Chaseu’s. Stetron, the host asked Puzo whether he would like to meet Sinatra who was sitting on the next table. Puzo refused, but the millionaire and his right hand man caught Puzo by the hand and practically dragged him to where Sinatra was seated. The experience was bitter. Sinatra didn’t talk to him. He kept his face down and at one point Puzo said, "Listen, it wasn’t my idea." Sinatra misunderstood the statement. He thought Puzo was apologizing for his character Johnny Fontane. Sinatra shouted back, "Who told you to put that in the book, your publisher ?" As Puzo writes, "I was completely dumbfounded. I don’t let publishers put commas in my books. That’s the only thing I have character about. Finally I said, I mean about being introduced to you." Different versions of this incident appeared in papers and on TV, depending on who was doing the reporting. Every version made Sinatra a hero, which made Puzo realize – how important public relations were. It just gave Puzo the right excuse for not attending parties.
No Links With Mafia
People doubted him of having links with the mafias. He was a heavyset man with appetite for food and gambling, may have looked like a gangster, but he had confessed that when he wrote the book, he had never met one — it was all research and imagination. He had also declared his hatred for violence and insisted that the real Corleone (hero of The Godfather) made him nervous. He had no links with the mafia.
In 1996, in an Associated Press interview, he acknowledged that his portrayal of the mafia gave the mafia a more romantic image than the actual thuggery of the real thing. "They’re not my mafia", he said of the real-life mobsters. "My mafia is a very romanticized myth." He insisted that his research was done in libraries, and not amongst gangsters.
"Where would I have time to be in the mafia ?" he asked. "I starved before the success of The Godfather. If I was in the mafia I would have made enough money so I wouldn’t have to write."
Puzo Lived a Life of a Hermit Before Being a Writer
When not writing, Puzo lived a bourgeois life, splitting time between his homes in Los Angeles and Long Island. He loved tennis and gambling; he particularly loved to visit Las Vegas, the world capital of gambling. In his More from Puzo:The Book, he states:
"When I was poor and working at home on my books, I made my wife a solemn promise that if I ever hit it big I’d get a studio, get out from under her feet. She hated having me home during the day. I was in the way rumpled up the bed. I messed up the living room. I roamed around the house cursing. I came charging and yelling out of my workroom when the kids had a fight. In short, I was nerve wracking. To make matters worse she could never catch me working. She claims she never saw me type. She claims that for three years all I did was fall asleep on the sofa and then just magically produced the manuscript for The Godfather. Anyway, a man is bound by solemn oaths. Now, that I was a big success, I had to get out of my own house during working hours.
I tried. I rented quite elegant studios. I went to London. I tried the French Riviera, Puerto Rico and Las Vegas. I hired secretaries and bought dictating machines. Nothing happened. I needed the kids screaming and fighting. I needed my wife interrupting my work to show me her newest curtains. I needed those trips to the supermarket. I got some of my best ideas while helping my wife load up the shopping cart. But I had made a solemn promise to get out of the house. So Ok. I’d go to Hollywood.
It’s true – success really throws a writer. For a year I had wandered around having ‘a good time’. It wasn’t that great. It was OK but it wasn’t great. And then remember that for 20 years I had lived the life of a hermit. I had seen a few close personal friends on occasion for dinner. I had spent evenings with my wife’s friends. I had gone to movies. I had taught my children how to gamble with percentages. But mostly I had been living in my own head, with all my dreams, all my fantasies. The world had passed me by. I didn’t know how much men had changed, women had changed, girls had changed, young men had changed, how society and the very government had changed. Also I had always been very content to be an observer at the few parties I went to over the years. I rarely initiated a conversation or a friendship. Suddenly I didn’t have to. People seemed genuinely delighted to talk to me, to listen to me; they were charming to me and I loved it. I became perhaps the most easily charmed guy in the Western Hemisphere. And it helped that the people were for the most part genuinely charming people. It was easy to stop being a hermit, in fact it was a pleasure. So, I had the courage to leave for Hollywood."
He admired people who could do two things at a time. In his book he relates an incident when one evening he dropped into Al Ruddy’s (his producer) office. While talking on the phone, Al rewrote the script he was about to produce for another studio. Mario watched him and was fascinated. He was actually writing while talking on the phone, which was special, as he writes, "I think I got this script licked now."
A Producer as Innocent as the Russian Army Man
Sources say, during World War II he was attached to the British Army, and at a point he could meet personnel of the Russian Army in a northern German town. This Russian division might never have seen plumbing. They were fascinated by water running out of the tap. One of those Russians ripped the tap off the wall and nailed it to a fence post. He was astonished when he turned on the tap and no water came out. He assumed the water just came out of the tap. The concept of plumbing might never have been revealed to him. One can laugh at it, but it wasn’t plain stupidity but innocence.
Similarly, when a director, or a star, or a producer picks up a pen, they believe words flow from a pen. It is not stupidity, but innocence. They have no concept of how writing really works. So writers shouldn’t get mad. They should just get the hell out of the movie business.
Unexpected Family Member
Once a young girl called Mary Puzo entered his Paramount office while he was writing the script of The Godfather. Mary Puzo was a pretty, bright and charming kid of about 16. She thought she was related to Mario, though she didn’t look Italian. He was so delighted that he called his mother in New York on extension with Mary Puzo. Both compared the origin, from where their parents and cousins came but could share no relationship. She then parted saying that she could name herself to be his niece.
Carol, Not Just a Nurse But a Family Member
To him Carol was not just a counselor, or a nurse, whom he said, was the best nurse he had ever seen, a great nurse. In his interview with Larry King he said, "She was – my wife was terminally ill, this was 18 years ago and she was a nurse, and she was the best nurse I have ever seen, really a great nurse and then you know we got disease and we’ve been together for 17 years and she saved my life. We were in Las Vegas, gambling on New Year’s Eve, she noticed my fingers were blue and other signs, and she dragged me to LA and I immediately had heart surgery, a quadruple bypass, so she saved my life there and a couple of other things. But also the biggest thing was, I was very depressed after my heart operation, I couldn’t write. And she got me prozac and when I was writing she used to believe I was writing something good. And she kept encouraging me, you know, – I used to say ‘Gee, this is lousy, who wants to read it,’ and she’d say, ‘No, no, it’s good. It’s good.’ And then my editor, Jonathan Karp at Random House said the same thing. He cheered me up pretty much, too. But it was Carol who really brought me through." Later on, they worked together on many fiction and non-fiction writings. After his death it was Carol who completed and published his incomplete novel, The Family.
Promoting His Work
Puzo, who remained in the shadows throughout his long career as a novelist and screenwriter said : "I believed in an old-fashioned tradition : That a writer should be mysterious, that the book should speak for itself, that publicity was vulgar." After 20 long years of self-imposed exile he broke the silence on August 2, 1996, when he appeared on Larry King Live on CNN. He was on to promote his mafia novel, The Last Don. He said : "I had nothing better to do. Random House convinced me you gotta do some marketing so they’ll know your book is out there. I always used to think, ‘If you write a good book, they’ll find it, they’ll buy it ;’ But now, it’s occurred even to me that you sorta got to take a hand in it."
The Skeptic
Puzo was a skeptic, who never believed in God, dogma, and had no faith except in the basic goodness of humanity. He valued harmony more than truth, though he could spot hypocrisy in seconds. He declared : "Myself, I would hate to live in such a world without law. But I take a view – it’s my character’s view. In my own personal view, everybody should get the electric chair, everybody should go to jail if they do something. Unless they’re friends of mine."
Writing Moods
Puzo was an undisciplined writer. He said of himself, "I write in streaks, I will write a lot for two months and then I won’t write anything for a month or two. I’m not the kind of guy who puts in four hours a day and quits. If I’m going to write, I’ll hang around the typewriter all day. It’s like hanging around the phone waiting for a call." Puzo took up writing during his early school days as he received encouragement from school teachers who recognized his talent. His family was less enthusiastic about his creative writing skills. He said, "My mother was very fond of me but she despaired of my ever earning a living. My family sent me to Commerce High School, where they taught me typing. Years later, I reproached my sister about it. I was the famous author who had won two Academy Awards. I said, ‘How could you send me to a commercial high school ?’ My sister was very tough. She looked at me and said, ‘Because you were too dumb to go to regular high school.’ "
Tough Life
He worked as a government clerk to support his family, while he needed to write to satisfy his favorite hobby since childhood. He was a great gambler. He said, "You’re a very busy man when you gamble. You gotta get up in the morning to read the papers to see who you’re going to bet. At 4 o’clock you go to see your loan shark for money to bet. Then you gotta go up there again at 7 o’ clock to bet the night games."
In his interview with Larry King he said, "I was very poor. Until I was 48 years old, I was very poor. I never took a vacation, I didn’t - you know, I just worked and so money became important."
Puzo wrote a proposal for a mafia novel, which was turned down by few publishers before Putnam accepted the offer and paid an advance of $ 5,000 to write the book. Puzo, used his credit cards for a journey with his family to Europe. The paperback rights were auctioned while they were away. "The day I arrived back from Europe I was either gonna have to sell my house to pay my debts or find an article to write for a lot of money. I called my publisher and learned the bidding on the paperback had reached $ 415,000."
A Moralist
Puzo is paradoxical, who understands the wicked nature of evil and crime so well, claims himself to be a moralist. He said : "I don’t like crime. I’m very moralistic against crime. In my work, a significant part of my writing is a commentary on America and its judicial system. It’s a ridiculous system. If you’ve got money you walk. Justice must be uniform. In the current social contract, the criminal is given more protection than I get and I play by the rules."
Mario Puzo was a novelist, a screenplay writer, a tennis player, and a gambler. He was kind and generous, with an uncanny sense of humor. Though he disagreed with religion, he lived his life with morals. His idea of happiness was eating, playing tennis, gambling, lying on a sofa staring at the ceiling for hours together and – writing.
Even while writing the script for the film The Godfather, he could unreel the kind of phrasing which flows permanently into his language. The film adaptation is nearly word for word adaptation of the novel except about Sonny’s girlfriend’s gynecological problems. The movie feels more dramatic than realistic due to its dialogue. Wise guys of the novel are missing in the movie, which sound more like Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. His works were about organized crime, American’s leading obsession, which he wrote as a family novel.
As a literary laureate of the mafia, he spoke of their highly marketable tales. Judging by the string of successes of his works, one can conclusively say that mafia entertainment far out-grosses the actual crime. His big money books led him away from high minded art, but assured him a place of honor in the pop culture. In his highly popular novel, he wrote : "Italians have a joke, that the world is so hard a man must have two fathers to look after him, and that’s why they have godfathers."
His End
He suffered from diabetes and heart problem. He underwent a bypass surgery in 1992. While recuperating he spent much of his time reading Dickens, Thackeray and Galsworthy along with Amita Brookner, Muriel Spark, Fay Weldon, Robert James Walles and Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Mario Puzo, winner of two Oscars for his screen adaptations of his book The Godfather, died on July 2, 1999 at his home in Bay Shore, Long Island. He is survived by his companion for 20 years, Carol Gino and five children.
MARIO PUZO
Mario Puzo’s The Godfather topped the charts for 67 consecutive weeks on the Times bestseller list. Over the years, more than 21 million copies were sold. The book was made into a film of the same name and won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1972. Another remake of this film with the same name won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1974. He wrote the screenplay for both the films. He made violence in real life synonymous with the real one and sex a legitimate subject for the coming generation of American writers to take inspiration from.
Son of an illiterate, schizophrenic railroad trackman, his life could be a runaway synopsis of the Great American Dream. His military duty during World War II and working as an apprentice writer creating pulp tales for men’s magazines, writing wonderful fiction as well as non-fiction pieces, could well be remembered for their commercial success. He loved playing tennis and gambling during his free hours. As a spirited tennis player, he served and volleyed his works as a ball, which most times responded with truckloads of money and rave reviews from die-hard critics. At times, his work went unrecognized even as he pinned high hopes on them. Thus, life itself was a gamble for him – who lost when readers were not convinced and won two Oscars and a nomination for a third while winning. Heller, an eyewitness at Puzo’s deathbed quotes him, "I never knew dying could be such a social occasion." Such will be the story emanating from the pages ahead that Mario played all his life.
Chronology of Life
October 15, 1920 Mario Puzo was born in Manhattan, New York.
1946 He married Erika Lina Broske.
1955 His first novel, The Dark Arena was published.
1964 His autobiographical piece, The Fortunate Pilgrim was published.
1969 The Godfather was published.
1978 His wife Erika died.
1984 The Sicilian was published.
1992 Puzo underwent a quadruple heart bypass surgery.
August 2, 1996 Appeared for an interview with Larry King on CNN after 20 years.
July 2, 1999 Mario Puzo passed away in Bay Shore, Long Island, New York.
Chronology of Works
1955
The Dark Arena, despite gaining rave reviews, was not a commercial success.
1965 The Fortunate Pilgrim, was also not commercially successful but Puzo considered it to be his best book. It too gained good reviews.
1966 How Crime Keeps America Healthy, Wealthy, Cleaner and More Beautiful, appeared at Cavalie.
1967 The Italians, American Style, published in New York Times Magazine and Writers, Talent, Money and Class : An Irreverent Interview, was published at Book World.
1968 Big Literary Gun Aims at Self and Misses appeared at Book World.
First Sundays at Redbook.
The Commonplace with Grandeur in New York Times Book Review.
Generalissimo Mailer : Hero of His Own Dispatches in the Book World.
A Modest Proposal and That's How It Used to Be … in Camelot in the Book World.
1969 The Godfather, his most popular novel published.
1978 Fools Die published.
1984 The Sicilian published.
1991 The Fourth K, a global political thriller based on President Kennedy published.
1996 The Last Don published by Random House – one more mafia novel.
Puzo began writing stories for a men’s magazine, while working as a civil servant. His first two novels got rave reviews, but had few buyers. His first novel was The Dark Arena in 1955, when he was 35. The novel dealt with the relationship between Mosca, a soldier, and Hella, a German native and explored the problems created by the characters’ different backgrounds.
His second novel The Fortunate Pilgrim was published in 1965. The story was about a family of Italian immigrants from the late 1920s through World War II. The plot centered around an Italian peasant woman’s perception of the ‘American dream’, her honest and determined progress against corrupt environs. The novel was republished by Random House in 1997 and it was also turned into a mini TV series in 1998. Neither of Puzo’s first two books were a financial success, though both were well received. Both were translated among others, into Finnish.
Making of the Godfather :
In 1965, he got the big opportunity, when a Putnam editor stopped in at Magazine Management’s office, listened to Puzo’s mafia yarns, and offered him a $ 5,000 advance for a book about the Italian underworld. The Godfather was published in 1969, and its success was almost unparalleled, selling in due course over 5,00,000 copies in hardcover and over 10,000,000 in paperback. For years The Godfather theme song was a staple at many Italian-American weddings.
In the film he handily accomplished his goal of depicting the immigrant’s struggle in the New World. Italian-American may have expressed anger at his having capitalized on the unpleasant reality of the mafia in a way that everlasting ugly stereotypes – "That’s mafia style, isn’t it ? All olive oil and sweet talk," says one character – but in a strange way they also embraced the tale. The book and the film had, at least made their community visible. The role of the Corleone family as outsiders in a white bread, straight world sounded a larger theme for many immigrants. In between the gems, he had made the story of ethnic isolation and striving for identity, accessible to millions of readers.
Generation Gap
In his depiction of Don Clericuzio, a character in his book The Last Don he portrays a powerful man walking a tightrope between his family obligations and his vast empire of crime. There is no room for error or indecision. He was an old-styled Don. He says, "there, the families were related by blood, and staked out a turf. You asked for permission to move through their territory. Family and blood meant everything. I used Sicilian characters to form my American characters. There is no comparison between the mob guys today and the ones from the old school. I detest these new mob guys who become public figures because the very essence of mob power came from never being in the limelight."
In fact, the old guys would never pretend that they deserve importance but everyone understood their power and their strength. While depicting strong emotional bonds and its defects, he wrote : "The old guys were men of honor.
They had family values, but I don’t know if that exists anymore because it was based on a patriarchal view of society. That’s all changed as families became more Americanized. The mob chiefs in the 1930s didn’t want their kids to go into the business. They wanted their kids to be better than them, to be more than them. They sent them to West Point, to the best schools. It was a variation of the American dream". Violence and Crime ‘the Candy and the Floss’ of his subjects
His movies are more violent than his novels. In an interview with Robert Fleming, Random House, Puzo said : "These guys know how to use violence as a business tool. It was a common marketing tool to persuade and convince your rivals and competitors. There’s not a more convincing argument than death." Much of the violence is because of people being disloyal, the ultimate of major violations, a sin which can never be forgiven. Puzo said : "Betrayal has to do with the contract, the blood oath taken. It’s like you have contract with society that if you behave then we’ll take care of you. With the mob, its contract protects you against society, against outsiders. Betrayal is always punished severely. An example must be made. No mercy."
Success
Puzo bagged tons of money as a screenwriter. He wrote 11 screenplays in all. A Hollywood producer insisted on giving him heavy amount of cash. He was not interested in writing the screenplay for The Cotton Club and thus instructed his lawyer to demand $ 1 million. It didn’t work. He got the million. Puzo was puzzled, "Why are they giving me all this money ? There’s something I don’t quite understand about Hollywood." Despite a deep disrespect for Hollywood that emerges from the pages of The Last Don, Puzo believes, movies are a good way to make a living. "Script writing, compared to novel writing, is much less labor intensive. I wrote scripts in two or three months. It takes me five years to write a novel. If I had discovered screen writing first and been successful at it, I never would have written a novel."
Fools Die : Corruptly Compulsive
Fools Die (1978) was set in Las Vegas, Hollywood, Tokyo, and New York during the 1950s and 1960s. It is a novel that takes one into the excitement of luxurious gambling casinos, the heady arena for big-shots, scheming manipulators with fancy links, a world of greed, lust, violence, betrayal, where men ruthlessly use their power and women gluttonously use their sex, where the strongest survive, and finally the Fools Die. The protagonist in the story was a dishonest fiction writer who considered himself a modern day magician.
Daily Express called the novel to be ‘Corruptly compulsive’ while Cosmopolitan said it to be "Unforgettable…will rivet your attention." The New York Times stated, "Within the interconnecting worlds of big time gambling, publishing and the film industry, the power of corruption and the corruption of power are nowhere better explored. From New York to Las Vegas, Merlyn and his brother Artie obey their own code of honor in the ferment of contemporary America, where law and organized crime are one and the same…"
The Sicilian : The Magic of Mafia
The Sicilian (1984), was a tale of treachery and violence. Michael Corleone is the protagonist of the novel where he finishes his exile of two years in Sicily. His Godfather has entrusted him with the mission of kidnapping Salvatore Guilano, a leader fighting for his peasant countrymen against the corrupt government of Rome. Puzo says, "The Dons, both Corleone and Clericuzio, are a collection of traits taken from the old-style Sicilian Dons, more like they operate in the old country, in Sicily. Thus, the families were related by blood, and skated out a turf. You asked for permission to move through their territory. Family and blood meant everything. I used Sicilian characters to form my American characters."
President Kennedy on a Desperate Course
The Fourth K (1991), is a superbly written political novel, a morality tale concerning a charismatic President seduced by power. A new Kennedy has been elected president. Francis Xavier Kennedy has inherited all the good looks, wealth, and youthful idealism of his famous uncles. As Mario Puzo writes – "The Fourth K was a (commercial) failure – but it was my most ambitious book."
The Last Don
The Last Don (1996) is one more tale of mafia life. It revolves around Hollywood, Las Vegas and the mob. A totally commercial product based on sex, murder, corruption, betrayal and redemption, beautiful women, wicked gangsters, cheap producers and dishonest cops.
Domenico Clericuzio was the head of the family that ruled organized crime uncontested, till his young nephew, Pippi De Lena rubbed out the wicked Santadio clan one night. There’s a lot of violence that could certainly sustain a mini series.
In the story starlets sleep with moguls and actresses are raped and seduced. A lesbian director goes after her female stars. "It is hard to find much fault with such a bankable book. It is what it is – escapist fun in the hands of an adroit storyteller using what’s worked for him in the past. On occasion, Puzo seems to tire, and lame dialogue clumsily advances the plot. I began to scream at his repeated use of the word ‘huge’ to describe chairs, tables, buffets, mansions, Cabanas and Havanas." – Gene Mustain, Los Angeles Times
A Critique by Gene Mustain, Los Angeles Times.
"I was amazed when Puzo, of all people, referred to a prosecutor as a ‘United States District Attorney’, when such does not exist. Or when he made a gangster unafraid of a legal case because New York had no death penalty – even though the case in question was federal, not state. Sorry to be so picky, Mario. But you didn’t leave much."
Omerta, his last novel was published a year after his death. He passed away on July 2, 1999, whereas, the novel was published in July 2000. Omerta was written nearly as loose as its screenplay. He spent the last three years of his life writing Omerta, which in Sicilian means ‘honor’. It is a tale of honor, of old values and contemporary new world business and political culture. The book concerns the Astorre Viola, the orphaned son of a Sicilian Godfather who is raised by a New York don. When his surrogate father was murdered, Viola attempts to settle the enmity the way they used to back in the old country.
He co-wrote several other screenplays, including two Superman movies, as well as The Cotton Club and Christopher Columbus.
• "Never let a domestic quarrel ruin a day's writing. If you can't start the next day fresh, get rid of your wife."
• "Writers become writers to avoid the pains and humiliations of the real world and real people."
• "A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns."
• "It can be argued that man's instinct to gamble is the only reason he is still
not a monkey up in the trees."
• "Working for magazines, I'd written some cookie-cutting switches in my time. But I hated the sheer stupidity of that movie, the writing, the whole concept, the whole misunderstanding of the Mafia world. "
• "I think everybody would like to have somebody that they could go to for justice, without going through the law courts and the lawyers. 'The Godfather' was really, to me, a family novel, more than a crime novel."
• "I didn't like show biz. I was a novelist; I had my novels to write."
• "With the perverse logic of a degenerate gambler he figured God was testing his faith."
• "I have written three novels. The Godfather is not as good as the preceding two; I wrote it to make money...."
• "I thought interviews don't really help sell a book. If you write a good enough book people will read it."
• "I wanted to be Joyce and I really more a story teller, you know, than an artist of language like Joyce..."
Godfather Speaks...
• "I will make him an offer he can’t refuse." -Don Corleone
• "In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns." -Don Corleone
• "My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator." -Michael Corleone
• "There are times when it is proper to make common cause with an enemy." -Don Corleone
• "After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns." -Don Corleone
• "You can't talk with a bullet. If you try to do that, you are not just a fool, you are a dead fool." -From The Godfather
