Scarface Quotes

(On why he would not add rap songs to the soundtrack to "Scarface") "They said it would help promotion, presenting the film in a different way, but Giorgio`s music was true to the period, I argued -- and no one changes the scores on movies by Marty Scorsese, John Ford, David Lean. If this is the `masterpiece` you say, leave it alone. I fought them tooth and nail and was the odd man out, not an unusual place for me. I have final cut, so that stopped them dead."

(on The Godfather: Part III (1990)) You know what the problem with that film is? The real problem? Nobody wants to see Michael have retribution and feel guilty. That`s not who he is. In the other scripts, in Michael`s mind he is avenging his family and saving them. Michael never thinks of himself as a gangster - not as a child, not while he is one and not afterward. That is not the image he has of himself. He`s not a part of the Goodfellas (1990) thing. Michael has this code; he lives by something that makes audiences respond. But once he goes away from that and starts crying over coffins, making confessions and feeling remorse, it isn`t right. I applaud (Francis Ford Coppola) for trying to get to that, but Michael is so frozen in that image. There is in him a deep feeling of having betrayed his mother by killing his brother. That was a mistake. And we are ruled by these mistakes in life as time goes on. He was wrong. Like in Scarface (1983) when Tony kills Manny - that is wrong, and he pays for it. And in his way, Michael pays for it.

I`ll tell you something. And this is a fact. When I was doing Scarface (1983), I remember being in love at that time. One of the few times in my life. And I was so glad it was at that time. I would come home and she would tell me about her life that day and all her problems and I remember saying to her, `Look, you really got me through this picture`, because I would shed everything when I came home.

You know what the problem with that film is? The real problem? Nobody wants to see Michael have retribution and feel guilty. That`s not who he is. In the other scripts, in Michael`s mind he is avenging his family and saving them. Michael never thinks of himself as a gangster - not as a child, not while he is one and not afterward. That is not the image he has of himself. He`s not a part of the GoodFellas thing. Michael has this code; he lives by something that makes audiences respond. But once he goes away from that and starts crying over coffins, making confessions and feeling remorse, it isn`t right. I applaud Francis Coppola for trying to get to that, but Michael is so frozen in that image. There is in him a deep feeling of having betrayed his mother by killing his brother. That was a mistake. And we are ruled by these mistakes in life as time goes on. He was wrong. Like in Scarface when Tony kills Manny - that is wrong, and he pays for it. And in his way, Michael pays for it. - On _Godfather: Part III, The (1990)_

If anyone`s been around some very long cocaine evenings, there`s nothing that`s in SCARFACE that we all haven`t seen before.

There are a lot of films that are drug dramas, and we didn`t want to tell Scarface again.