Leone Quotes

(on Sergio Leone) I spun off Sergio and he spun off me. I think we worked well together. I like his compositions. He has a very good eye. I liked him, I liked his sense of humor, but I feel it was mutual. He liked dealing with the kind of character I was putting together.

(regarding filming Once Upon A Time In America) I was a kid, unaware of the stakes or what was expected. I might as well have been doing a school play, because to me, Sergio Leone was just a fat man who ate a lot and had a really cool accent. NOW I understand he`s a master artist who I was lucky to be in the presence of and directed by. (1996)

Sergio Leone was a big influence on me because of the spaghetti westerns.

The directors I would have loved to have seen were Kurosawa or Leone - I would have loved being on their set to see how they worked.

Being a kid growing up with Kurosawa films and watching Sergio Leone movies just made me love what it could do to you, and how it could influence you - make you dream.

Next to Clint Eastwood`s father, he personally had done more for Clint Eastwood than anyone else. - about Sergio Leone.

But Sergio Leone invented totally the way of, you know, the details, the eyes, the hands - fantastic.

And also, Sergio Leone was considered in Italy a director of category B, not a big director.

The hospital in Sierra Leone sent a log of events of Alex`s final 24 hours, and that was put in an envelope and I didn`t read it for several months. But burying that information obviously didn`t work and eventually Vicki persuaded me to read the log.

In Sierra Leone last year there was just the two of us hanging out of a helicopter and, when we were in Bosnia, I drove an armoured vehicle, thousands of miles.

I think they do have to get it right in Sierra Leone. There has to be something in there now to establish confidence, to stabilize the situation, and then to move to some sort of political negotiations.

I think what`s happening in Sierra Leone is a crisis for that country, of course, but it`s also a crisis for peacekeeping for the United Nations.

I would hate to see operations in the Congo held hostage to Sierra Leone but I really think that`s the way it`s got to be. At one point we`ve got to decide to get it right and we`ve got to be professional.

However, I think, first of all, that what`s happening in Sierra Leone is going to have the great influence on those governments who will be asked to provide forces to the Congo. Second, of course, the Security Council has no professional military advice organized in any way.

I think the Congo force is in danger of not being enacted if we don`t clean up the act in Sierra Leone and indeed in all peace-keeping of the future.