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1. When studios start telling me why a particular film project won’t work, I remember ‘Rocky.’ I remember that the biggest success Bob Chartoff and I have had was a film nobody wanted to make.
2. As a producer, the most important call you can get is on Saturday morning, when the Friday-night grosses come in. As a director, you want your film to be successful. But your outlook is a bit different. You become very conscious of the reviews.
3. For the good producer, raising capital is about the last thing to worry about. If you’re good, the money comes very easily.
4. I just think there’s a general interest in the world of computers.
5. Many of the best films made about war have come out after the wars have ended. People need a period of time to reflect on them.
6. I have an Oscar on my mantel.
7. The day I make movies that Rupert Murdoch likes and admires is the day I’ll throw in the towel, because he’s got no taste.
8. It wasn’t easy getting ‘GoodFellas’ started.
9. Every film I do, I’m involved with from the very conception of the project.
10. If you look at successful studios, they’re the ones with stabilized management.
11. Most of the producers don’t know what they do. The misconception of the producers’ function is really not a misconception. Most producers don’t do a very good job.
12. More money has been lost trying to imitate ‘Rocky’ than ‘Rocky’ has made.
13. I really woke up one morning and said, you know, ‘I haven’t seen a good film about the American Revolution. And all the ones I have seen haven’t been successful, but I’m going to make a successful one.’ Well, I wasn’t able to do that.
14. This is certainly not to excuse the violence that exists on TV and films and on the Internet. But the truth is that wherever you go in Europe, there are American films and TV shows that are just as popular as at home. And you don’t have that sense of violence in any other place other than America.
15. Show me a Scorsese film, and I’ll show you a movie where he’s taken risks. It’s just his nature. He’s an artist, and artists take risks. He always does what he believes in.
16. We all know we have a prescribed amount of time on Earth. We just don’t know how much.
17. Believe me, it would be a long, long, cold day before I decide to warm up next to Rupert Murdoch.
18. Usually when you have a sequel, the character always stays the same and that’s true basically of ‘Rocky III,’ ‘IV’ and ‘V.’ He didn’t really change.
19. If I’m going to produce something, it’s going to be with somebody I think is special. Once I go beyond a handful of directors, like Scorsese, there are very few I want to work with.
20. When James Bond gets old, you get rid of him and bring a new James Bond in.