Quotes¶

Sourced, with AFI rankings — and the famous ones people get wrong, flagged.

The AFI list¶

Two lines from the trilogy made AFI's 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes (2005):

Rank	Line	Speaker	Film
#2	"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."	Vito Corleone	The Godfather
#58	"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."	Michael Corleone	Part II

"Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in" was nominated and did not make the final hundred.

The Godfather (1972)¶

"I believe in America. America has made my fortune." — Amerigo Bonasera. The first words of the trilogy, spoken in total darkness by a man about to ask for two people to be beaten. See Sicily & America.

"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." — Vito, to Johnny Fontane. Watch it. Note that Brando throws it away.

"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." — Clemenza, after Paulie Gatto's murder. Improvised by Richard S. Castellano on set. Six words that tell you everything about the man.

"Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes." — Clemenza, translating a fish wrapped in a bulletproof vest.

"It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business." — Michael, proposing to murder two men who shot his father and broke his jaw. Nobody in these films is telling the truth when they say this. See Themes.

"A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man." — Vito, in the same conversation where he slaps his godson for weeping.

"Never tell anybody outside the family what you're thinking again." — Vito to Sonny, after Sonny's flicker of interest in Sollozzo's deal. The single most consequential sentence in the film, and it's a rebuke nobody heeds.

"Look how they massacred my boy." — Vito to Bonasera, over Sonny's body — calling in the favor from the opening scene.

"I never wanted this for you… I work my whole life, I don't apologize, to take care of my family." — Vito to Michael, the garden scene. Written by Robert Towne, uncredited, and not in the novel. See Book vs. Film.

"Do you renounce Satan?" — "I do renounce him." — The priest and Michael, during five murders.

"Don't ask me about my business, Kay." — Michael. Said twice, in two films, and it is always a door closing.

"Tell Mike it was only business. I always liked him." — Tessio, being led away to be killed.

"I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders." — Moe Greene, sealing it.

Part II (1974)¶

"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." — Michael, attributing it to his father. Vito never says it in any film. See below.

"I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart." — Michael to Fredo, Havana. A death sentence and a genuine grief in one sentence.

"I'm smart! Not like everybody says… I'm smart and I want respect!" — Fredo, the trilogy's only howl.

"This is the business we've chosen." — Hyman Roth. Followed by I didn't ask who gave the order — because it had nothing to do with business, which is a threat, an accusation, and an alibi at once.

"There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." — the full version.

"If anything in this life is certain — if history has taught us anything — it's that you can kill anyone." — Michael, watching a Cuban rebel detonate a grenade rather than be captured.

"Michael, we're bigger than U.S. Steel." — Hyman Roth, on the Havana syndicate.

"It wasn't a miscarriage. It was an abortion." — Kay. The only successful act of resistance anyone mounts against Michael. See The Women.

"A man can never lose his family." — Carmela. "Times are changing." — Michael, who has already decided to kill her son.

Part III (1990) and Coda¶

"Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in." — Michael. The most-quoted line in the film and the most parodied line in the trilogy.

"I killed my mother's son. I killed my father's son." — Michael's confession to Cardinal Lamberto. The only fully true sentence he says in three films. See Catholicism & Ritual.

"Your sins are terrible, and it is just that you suffer. Your life could be redeemed, but I know you don't believe that. You will not change." — Cardinal Lamberto, absolving him.

"The richest man is the one with the most powerful friends." — Don Altobello.

"Power wears out those who don't have it." — Calò, before killing Don Lucchesi. The line is Giulio Andreotti's, the Italian prime minister Lucchesi is modeled on. See Real-World Mafia.

"When the Sicilians wish you 'cent'anni,' it means 'for long life'… and a Sicilian never forgets." — the closing title card of Coda. A blessing and a threat in one phrase.

Commonly misquoted¶

"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." Michael says this, in Part II, attributing it to Vito. Vito never says it on screen in any film. It is universally misattributed to Brando's character and often to Sun Tzu, who did not write it either — the nearest classical source is Machiavelli, and even that's a stretch.

"Leave the gun, take the cannoli." Correct, and worth knowing it was improvised. It is not in the script and not in the novel.

"Say hello to my little friend." Not this film. Scarface (1983), also Pacino.

"Behind every great fortune there is a crime." Puzo's epigraph, attributed to Balzac. Balzac's actual line, from Le Père Goriot, is the secret of great fortunes without apparent cause is a forgotten crime. The punchier version predates Puzo; The Godfather is why everyone knows it.

"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." Frequently rendered as "I'll make him an offer…" Both forms appear across the trilogy — Vito says I'm gonna in the wedding scene; the AFI's ranked version is that one.

Contributing¶

If you add a quote, give the film and the speaker, and flag it if the line is commonly misattributed. Brief quotation for commentary is fine; long passages of dialogue are not — see Contributing.