I know that I come from mid-20th century America, urban, specifically downtown New York, specifically an Italian-American area, Roman Catholic – that’s who I am. And a part of what I know is there’s a decency to people who tried to make a living in the kind of world that was around us and also the Skid Row area of the Bowery; it impressed me. Martin Scorsese Read Quote
People want to classify and say, ‘OK, this is a gangster film.’ ‘This is a Western.’ ‘This is a… ‘ You know? It’s easy to classify and it makes people feel comfortable, but it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t really matter. Martin Scorsese Read Quote
I’m sad to see celluloid go, there’s no doubt. But, you know, nitrate went, by the way, in 1971. If you ever saw a nitrate print of a silent film and then saw an acetate print, you’d see a big difference, but nobody remembers anymore. The acetate print is what we have. Maybe. Now it’s digital. Martin Scorsese Read Quote
I would ask: Given the nature of free-market capitalism – where the rule is to rise to the top at all costs – is it possible to have a financial industry hero? And by the way, this is not a pop-culture trend we’re talking about. There aren’t many financial heroes in literature, theater or cinema. Martin Scorsese Read Quote
It’s hard to let new stuff in. And whether that admits a weakness, I don’t know. Martin Scorsese Read Quote
I always wanted to make a film that had this sort of Chinese-box effect, in which you keep opening it up and opening it up, and finally at the end you’re at the beginning. Martin Scorsese Read Quote
The Five Points was the toughest street corner in the world. That’s how it was known. In fact, Charles Dickens visited it in the 1850s and he said it was worse than anything he’d seen in the East End of London. Martin Scorsese Read Quote
Well the thing is that the New York of 1846 to 1862 was very different from downtown New York now. Really nothing from that period still exists in New York. Martin Scorsese Read Quote
