Quotes by Mario Puzo

“Do you believe a man can truly love a woman and constantly betray her?Never mind physically but betray her in his mind,in the very "poetry of his soul".Well,it's not easy but men do it all the time.”

“Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.”

“Accidents don't happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult.”

“Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family.- Don Corleone”

“Friendship is more than talent. It is more than government. It is almost the equal of family. Never forget that. If you had built up a wall of friendship you wouldn't have to ask me to help. - Don ...”

“Michael could never remember his father ever having uttered a word about death, as if the Don respected death too much to philosophize about it.”

“I have no such powers. If I did I would be more merciful than God, believe me.”

“You cannot say 'no' to the people you love, not often. That's the secret. And then when you do, it has to sound like a 'yes'. Or you have to make them say 'no.' You have to take time and trouble.”

“God seemed to be having a hard time killing him, and he'd be damned if he was going to make the job easy for mere mortals”

“A man's primary duty in life is to earn his own living, but to what purpose if he did not have a wife and children?”

“You can't hide the thunderbolt. When it hits you, everybody can see it. Christ, man, don't be ashamed of it, some men pray for the thunderbolt. You're a very lucky fellow. - Calo”

“Let us be separated by wars and pestilence, death, madness but not by the passing of time.”

“Yet, he thought, if I can die saying, "Life is so beautiful," then nothing else is important. If i can believe in myself that much, nothing else matters.”

“Not to be rich, but to have money; to have money like a wall to put your back to, and then face the world.”

“I'll tell you the only real truth. Cunt is where it all begins and where it all ends. Cunt is the only thing worth living for. Everything else is a fake, a fraud and just shit.”

“A man who is not a father to his children can never be a real man,”

“The fact of the matter is that I wanted to hold a grudge in some funny kind of way.Against everybody.”

“I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.”

“What would the world come to if people kept carrying grudges against all reason? That has been the cross of Sicily, where men are so busy with vendettas they have no time to earn bread for their fa...”

“Great men are not born great, they grow great . . .”