The Last Don Quotes
"Obvious power was too dangerous. But the relinquishing of power was dangerous in itself."
"The oldest, Giorgio, was twenty-seven, saturnine, with savage wit and closed face."
"You will be applying to the Wharton School of Business. There you will learn all the intricacies of stealing money while staying within the law."
"Your wife, Nalene, cannot live in the atmosphere of the Family, she cannot live in the Bronx Enclave."
"You will be my Bruglione in the West. You will become rich. But there is important work to do."
"I am about to decide your destiny and set you on your true path. You will open the finest restaurant in New York."
"We hope someday to be saints. But not martyrs."
"The victory over the Santadio had cost the Clericuzio dearly."
"The Don watched the crowds of people mulling around the several long tables filled with crystal urns of deep red wine."
"He had to do it with the most skillful benignity and with personal goodwill."
"We are rich, we no longer have to risk our lives to earn our daily bread."
"My proposal is this. I retire from all my interests with the exception of gambling."
"There is no man in the crowd paying homage to the infants."
"I’ve taught you everything. We’ve done some hard things, really hard to do."
"He felt a surge of joy that these two infants would grow up sheltered and safe."
"There is nothing so beautiful as a woman in love, nor so heartbreaking as when she is made a widow."
"He was responsible for ensuring that these two children would never have to suffer to earn a living."
"If you could have a million dollars by pushing a button and killing a million Chinamen, would you do it?"
"What’s past is past. Never go back. Not for excuses. Not for justification, not for happiness."
"Movies have cameras, they have sets, they have music and they have these great faces."
"Profits on the Super Bowl football game alone, if gambling became legal, would come to a billion dollars, in just one day."
"Actions defined a man; words were a fart in the wind."
"Your Family was your society, your God was your punisher, and your followers protected you."
"What greater purpose could a man have in this world than to earn his daily bread, then in the next world to present himself to a forgiving deity?"
"He was a devout Catholic: payment for sins in this world, forgiveness in the next."
"Every debt had to be paid, and he was strict in his judgment in this world."
"A man’s primary duty in life is to earn his own living."
"An intelligent, reasonable man in most cases has nothing to fear from women."
"Writers are not their books; their books are the distillation of the very best that is in them."
"He understood life and the tragedies of character."
"People with a great deal of money had to be cruel and defensive, and that the poor ought to become criminals since they had to fight laws written by the rich to protect their money."
"All welfare was simply a necessary bribe to keep the poor from starting a revolution."
"Religion should be prescribed like medication."
"You’re a very lucky girl," Vail said. "You’re not a novelist, you’re a screenwriter. You will never be a novelist."
"I have only one thing going for me," he said. "If I’m not honest about those things then I’m nothing."
"Life is like a box of hand grenades, you never know what will blow you to kingdom come."
"I can’t write that scene," Claudia said. "It does nothing for the story. It’s just action and camera."
"I don’t mind having to tear up these markers, but I hate your being dumb," Cross said.
"You’re right," Athena said. "That may be. But someday he will be a hell of a lot unhappier than I ever will be."
"Despite all this there came times when risks had to be taken, when an iron fist must be shown."
"The one great mystery that would never be solved was why very rich men still wasted time gambling to win money they did not need."
"Wealthy men and women would take this bait. They gambled to hide other vices, to conquer fate, or to show superiority to their fellow creatures."
"The hatred I feel. And I’ll tell you something else. The voting public has contempt for me, they perceive me as a weak fool."
"You cannot live a life without order. If you have power, you must use it for strict justice."
"The world is what it is, and you are what you are."
"Everybody gambles. I do when the percentages are right."
"It’s costing them a fortune to tread water on this picture."
"In Sicily when I was growing up everybody wore a funny hat. Who knows why? Who cares?"
"The printed word was not important. It was the visual image with the lodestone attracting light from every corner of the universe that made the company logo so powerful."
"I’ve spent my whole life convincing people. In my Vegas hotel, I have to convince very smart men to gamble their money against the odds. And I do that by making them happy. That means I give them what they really want."
"Women are never more dangerous to men than when they have to be saved. Beware, beware, of Beauty in Distress."
"For some reason this cheered Gronevelt up. That such a brain could please the opposite sex."
"He’s a funny kind of guy. Keeps a low profile. But take my advice, don’t get mixed up with him again."
"Because he would have met with me first to see if I would give you away."
"You notice that Giorgio and Vincent and Petie’s kids know nothing about Family business? The Don and Giorgio have all planned that the children will be strictly legit."
"Remember this is a Communion not a Confirmation. It has to look as if he took it on the lam."
"I must meet such a man, if only for the pleasure of the experience. But I can guarantee nothing."
"He has a wife and three children and they must go with him."
"I have received the highest recommendations, but I worry. Can a man of your education and qualification be happy in America in the service of another man?"
"What would you do to save him? I want to have my wife and children safe and for that I will do my duty."
"There will be some danger for us. You understand that I have to think of the benefits that justify the risk."
"My family will live together or die together."
"I want to thank you for saving my wife and children."
"Watch out for Jim Losey, he's keeping an eye out on Skannet."
"He believes women are equal to men, he believes peasants should be given free land."
"As in China and Russia and Africa. As the Don often says, Then we can all go swim in the bottom of the ocean."
"The Studio doesn’t take characters like that seriously."
"I'd like to meet this guy Skannet. Any man who can scare an actress out of her career has some good in him."
"We’ve recouped our loss out of a hopeless situation."
"Pull off your surveillance. I don't want anyone watching him."
"You know I’ll do anything for you Cross, but be careful."
"You are far more Sicilian than my son and you were born in America."
"Is it possible to live in such a world where everyone does what he pleases?"
"Everybody is responsible for everything he does."
"I should have killed him straight out. I should have taken my chances. I hate being so fucking clever."
"I never dreamed in my life of even one million and now it doesn’t help me."
"None of you are taking me seriously. I can do simple arithmetic."
"And when they have the muscle they screw us. That’s business."
"Why do we always have to pay for other people’s good intentions?"
"I can live maybe six months, maybe a year, maybe much less with this lousy heart I have."
"I’m never going to write again. Writing novels is a dead end, like being a blacksmith."
"I’m just a fuckup. Eccentrics do odd things to distract people from what they do or are."
"Isn’t it wonderful, an art that requires no real talent?"
"You learned the official’s yearly salary and offered him five times that amount."
"If it wasn’t for him I would never have lived to go to Sicily."
"I’d just accept it. I’d learn from it. I just got outfoxed because I didn’t believe they’d have the balls."
"You can’t just ignore it. You will be known for a fool and men all over the world will refuse you any respect."
"There are no miracles in these cases, absolutely none."
"It’s OK to make mistakes in life as long as it was not a fatal mistake."
"It is dangerous to be reasonable with stupid people."
"You’ll bring the Families together, won’t you, Pippi?"
"I’m counting on you to make everything work."
"I swear to you, Pippi, I had nothing to do with it."
"Imagine. The plantation owners fucked their daughters and gave those children jobs for the rest of their lives."
"Sure, drug dealers would exchange bullets, but no mob guy would have the balls to execute a police officer. It would be too much heat."
"Standing over him was Lia Vazzi, and in his hands was a thin silk rope."
"Each bag could contain a large body. There was no possible leakage of blood from the bag."
"The seven Villas, their green flags waving slightly, made a magnificent sight under the desert moon."
"Dante was thinking, Where the hell is Losey? He called out to him, meanwhile thinking that such a small-caliber gun could never stop him."
"Cross said, "All your life you were a Santadio.""