Mario Puzo, The Godfather

"It was a lie but he believed in telling lies to people. Truth telling and medicine just didn't go together except in dire emergencies, if then."

"There are things that have to be done and you do them and you never talk about them. They can't be justified. You just do them. Then you forget it."

"At that moment Sonny noticed that the other car had not kept going but had parked a few feet ahead, still blocking his way. At that same moment his lateral vision caught sight of another man in the darkened tollbooth to his right. But he did not have time to think about that because two men came out of the car parked in front and walked toward him. The toll collector still had not appeared. And then in the fraction of a second before anything actually happened, Santino Corleone he knew he was a dead man. And in that moment his mind was lucid, drained of all violence, as if the hidden fear finally real and present had purified him."

"The other Dons in the room applauded and rose to shake hands with everybody in sight and to congratulate Don Corleone and Don Tattaglia on their new friendship. It was not perhaps the warmest friendship in the world, they would not send each other Christmas gift greetings, but they would not murder each other. That was friendship enough in this world, all that was needed."

"Behind every successful fortune there is a crime."

"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 families."

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

"And in that fraction of a second before anything actually happened, Santino Corleone knew he was a dead man."

"Great men are not born great, they grow great . . ."

"Many young men started down a false path to their true destiny. Time and fortune usually set them aright."

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

"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."

"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."

"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 Corleone"

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

"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"

"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."

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