Clemenza quotes from The Godfather (1972)

Clemenza

Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

Clemenza

Well think about it while you're drivin'...I wanna hit New York sometime this month. And watch out for the kids when you're backin' out.

Clemenza

We was all real proud of you, Mikey, for being a war hero and all. All of us... even your father.

Clemenza

Oh Paulie... You won't see him no more.

Clemenza

It's alright... Sollozzo knows he's a civilian.

Sonny

What the hell is this?

Pete Clemenza

It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.

Sonny

How's Paulie?

Pete Clemenza

Oh, Paulie... won't see him no more.

Clemenza

He wants us to send Michael to hear the proposition. And the promise is that the deal is so good that we can't refuse.

Sonny

No more meetin's, no more discussions, no more Sollozzo tricks.

Michael

We can't wait. I don't care what Sollozzo says about a deal, he's gonna kill Pop, that's it. That's the key for him. Gotta get Sollozzo. They wanna have a meeting with me, right? It will be me, McCluskey, and Sollozzo. Let's set the meeting. Get our informers to find out where it's gonna be held. Now, we insist it's a public place, a bar, a restaurant, some place where there's people so I feel safe. They're gonna search me when I first meet them, right? So I can't have a weapon on me then. But if Clemenza can figure a way to have a weapon planted there for me, then I'll kill 'em both.

Sonny

Hey, whatcha gonna do, nice college boy, eh? Didn't want to get mixed up in the Family business, huh? Now you wanna gun down a police captain cuz he slapped ya in the face? Hah? What do you think this is the Army, where you shoot 'em a mile away? You've gotta get up close like this and bada-bing,you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit! Come here!

Michael

Sonny...

Sonny

You're taking this very personal. Tom, this is business and this man is taking it very personal.

Michael

Where does it say that you can't kill a cop?...I'm talking about a cop that's mixed up in drugs. I'm talking about a dishonest cop and a crooked cop who got mixed up in the rackets and got what was coming to him. That'd make a helluva story. Now we got people in the newspapers, right Tom? They might like a story like that.

Tom Hagen

They might; they just might.

Michael

It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.

Pete Clemenza

All right, you just shot 'em both. Now what do you do?

Michael Corleone

Sit down and finish my dinner.

Clemenza

This is as cold as they come, impossible to trace, so you don't worry about prints, Mike. I put a special tape on the trigger and the butt. Here, try it. [Michael takes the revolver] What'sa matter? The trigger too tight?

Michael

No. [fires] Ah, my ears.

Clemenza

Yeah, I left it noisy. That way, it scares any pain-in-the-ass innocent bystanders away. All right, you shot 'em both. Now what do you do?

Michael

Sit down, finish my dinner.

Clemenza

Come on, kid. Don't fool around. Just let your hand drop to your side, and let the gun slip out. Everybody'll still think you got it. They're gonna be staring at your face, Mike, so walk out of the place real fast, but don't run. Don't look nobody directly in the eye, but you don't look away either. Eh, they're gonna be scared stiff of you, believe me, so don't worry about nothing. You know, you gonna turn out all right. You take a long vacation, nobody knows where, and we gonna catch the hell.

Michael

How bad do you think it's gonna be?

Clemenza

Pretty god-damn bad. Probably, all the other families will line up against us. That's all right. These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood. Been ten years since the last one. You know, you gotta stop 'em at the beginning, like they shoulda stopped Hitler at Munich. They should never have let him get away with that. They was just asking for big trouble. You know, Mike, we was all proud of you, being a hero and all. Your father, too.