The Godfather Part III

Michael Corleone:
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

Michael Corleone:
[at Don Tommasino's funeral] Goodbye, my old friend. You could have lived a little longer; I could be closer to my dream. You were so loved, Don Tommasino. Why was I so feared, and you so loved? What was it? I was no less honorable. I wanted to do good. What betrayed me? Was it my mind? My heart? Why do I condemn myself so? I swear on the lives of my children: Give me a chance to redeem myself, and I will sin no more.

Johnny Fontane:
Michael, it's your favorite song! Where are you going?

Michael Corleone:
I'm just gonna go into the kitchen and listen to some Tony Bennett records.

[Michael's son Anthony has refused to join the "family business"]

Michael Corleone:
You could have helped me, Kay. You could have helped me to convince him.

Kay Adams-Corleone:
Convince him of what?

Michael Corleone:
He throws his life away. He throws greatness away!

Kay Adams-Corleone:
This is greatness? You know, Michael, now that you're so respectable I think you're more dangerous than you ever were. In fact, I preferred you when you were just a common Mafia hood.

Michael Corleone:
Alright, can we talk now? Common sense?

Kay Adams-Corleone:
Alright. Tony knows you killed Fredo.

Michael Corleone:
[angry] Why did you come here?

Kay Adams-Corleone:
I came here to protect my son. I didn't come here to see you shielded by your church. I thought that was a shameful ceremony.

Michael Corleone:
I spent my life protecting my son! I spent my life protecting my family!

Kay Adams-Corleone:
Let's be reasonable here, Michael. I mean, that's your big thing, isn't it? Reason backed up by murders.

Michael Corleone:
Oh, God, you hate me. You hate me.

Kay Adams-Corleone:
No, I don't hate you, Michael. I dread you.

Michael Corleone:
I did what I could to protect you from the horrors of the world.

Kay Adams-Corleone:
But you became my horror.

Vincent Mancini:
You like to gamble? Why don't we go to Atlantic City? My town. I'll show you how to gamble.

Grace Hamilton:
Yeah, but I like to win. How will I know what numbers to pick?

Vincent Mancini:
Do I look like a guy who's gonna lose?

Vincent Mancini:
Don Lucchesi, you are a man of finance and politics. These things I don't understand.

Don Lucchesi:
You understand guns?

Vincent Mancini:
Yes.

Don Lucchesi:
Finance is a gun. Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.

Michael Corleone:
You all know Joey Zasa. He is, I admit, an impressive man. His picture is on the cover of the New York Times Magazine. He gets the Esquire Magazine award for the best dressed gangster. [the assembled Dons laugh] The newspapers praise him because he hires the blacks into his family, which shows he has a good heart. Who knows, maybe someday he will make all of you popular.

Joey Zasa:
It's true, I make more of a bella figura. That is my nature. But I also want to make a move into legitimate enterprises. I also want a pin from the Pope. Sure, I take the blacks and the Spanish into my family, because that's America.

Michael Corleone:
And you guarantee that they don't deal the drugs in those neighborhoods?

Joey Zasa:
I don't guarantee that. I guarantee that I'll kill anyone who does.

Don Altobello:
[to Michael, nervously] Let me talk to him.

Michael Corleone:
Who can refuse Don Altobello?

[Zasa makes to leave]

Don Altobello:
Joey...

Joey Zasa:
[angry] No! I say to all of you that I have been treated this day with no respect! I've made you all money. And I asked for little. Good. You won't give, I'll take! As for Don Corleone, he has made it very clear today that he is my enemy! You must choose between us.

Michael Corleone:
Joe Zasa would never pull something like this without backing. He doesn't have the wit for that helicopter attack. He doesn't even have the ambition to wipe out the whole Commission. Certainly not the balls.

Vincent Mancini:
I say we hit back and take Zasa out!

Michael Corleone:
[leaning to Vincent] Never let anyone know what you're thinking. [to Vincent, Connie and Neri] All right, let's get a ... let's get a message to Joey Zasa. I respect what he's done. The new overthrows the old, it's natural.

Vincent Mancini:
How can you do business with this guy?

Michael Corleone:
I'm a businessman, first and foremost. I want no conflict with anyone.

Vincent Mancini:
Well, you can tell him from me that he can live or he can die.

Michael Corleone:
Vincent, WILL YOU SHUT UP?!

Don Altobello:
Treachery is everywhere.

Michael Corleone:
You still have your fingers on the strings, even now.

Vincent Mancini:
[in a helicopter] I'd like to take Joey Zasa up in one of these and drop him.

Michael Corleone:
Joey Zasa is nothing. He's a small-time enforcer. He bluffs, he threatens, but nothing. You can see him coming a mile away.

Vincent Mancini:
We should kill him before he kills...

Michael Corleone:
No! Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.

Michael Corleone:
I feel... I'm getting wiser now.

Kay Corleone:
The sicker you get, the wiser you get, huh?

Michael Corleone:
When I'm dead, I'm gonna be really smart.

Cardinal Lamberto:
Would you like to make your confession?

Michael Corleone:
[flustered] Your eminence, I... it's been so long... I wouldn't know where to... It's been 30 years. I'd use up too much of your time.

Cardinal Lamberto:
I always have time to save souls.

Michael Corleone:
Well... I am beyond redemption.

Cardinal Lamberto:
I hear my own priests' confessions here. The urge to confess can be overwhelming.

Michael Corleone:
What is the point of confessing if I do not repent?

Cardinal Lamberto:
I hear you are a practical man. What have you got to lose, eh? Go on.

Michael Corleone:
[hesitantly] I... I betrayed my wife.

Cardinal Lamberto:
Go on, my son.

Michael Corleone:
I betrayed myself. I killed men, and I ordered men to be killed.

Cardinal Lamberto:
Go on, my son, go on.

Michael Corleone:
I... ah, it's useless.

Cardinal Lamberto:
Go on, my son.

Michael Corleone:
[choking up] I killed... I ordered the death of my brother. He injured me. [sobbing] I killed my father's son. I killed my father's son!

Cardinal Lamberto:
Your sins are terrible, and it is just that you suffer. Your life could be redeemed, but I know you do not believe that. You will not change.

Michael Corleone:
I want you to forgive me.

Kay Adams-Corleone:
For what?

Michael Corleone:
For everything.

Kay Adams-Corleone:
Like God, huh?

Michael Corleone:
I need something a little closer. You could never understand, back in those days. I loved my father. I swore I would never be a man like him, but I loved him, and he was in danger. What could I do? Then, later, you were in danger, our children were in danger. What could I do? You were all I loved and valued in the world, and now I'm losing you - I've lost you anyway, and it was all for nothing, so... You have to understand, I had a whole different destiny planned. Alright, I'll stop.

Kay Adams-Corleone:
[crying] I really don't know what you want from me, Michael. I really don't know.

Michael Corleone:
I'm not the man you think I am.

Kay Adams-Corleone:
I just don't know...

Michael Corleone:
I love you, Kay. You know, every night here in Sicily, I dream of my wife and my children, and how I lost them.

Kay Adams-Corleone:
I guess, if it's any consolation, Michael... I want you to know that I've always loved you, and... and I always will.

B.J. Harrison:
[about the newly ordained Pope John Paul I]: The Pope's doing exactly what you said he'd do, he's cleaning house.

Michael Corleone:
He should be careful. It's dangerous to be an honest man.

Archbishop Gilday:
The Pope is gravely ill. Until he recovers, I am powerless.

B.J. Harrison:
What if he dies?

Frederick Keinszig:
Then, as you Americans say, all bets are off.

Vincent Mancini-Corleone:
I am your son. Command me in all things.

Michael Corleone:
Give up my daughter. It's the price you pay for the life you choose.

Vincent Mancini-Corleone:
Done.

Michael Corleone:
Nephew, from this moment, call yourself Vincent Corleone.

[Vincent has broken off his romance with Mary]

Mary Corleone:
I'll always love you.

Vincent Mancini-Corleone:
Love somebody else.

All the power on earth can't change destiny.

Real power can't be given. It must be taken.

Never Hate Your Enemies, It Affects Your Judgement.

Michael Corleone:
You had a gun. They only had a knife. You could have talked them into surrendering. Turned them over to the police.

Vincent Mancini:
Hey, Uncle Mike, Zasa sent these guys I was just sending him a message that's all.

Michael Corleone:
Now he has to send you a message back.

Vincent Mancini:
Joey Zasa's gonna send me a message? Joey Zasa's gonna send me a message?

Connie:
Michael, he did the right thing. He got Zasa's name.

Michael Corleone:
What's Joey Zasa got to do this this? Joey Zasa's a patso. Joey Zasa. Alright, you are what you are. It's in your nature. From now on you stick close to me. You don't go anywhere, you don't do anything, you don't talk to anyone without checking with me first, understand?

Vincent Mancini:
Yeah.

Michael Corleone:
I've got problems with the commission, young man!

Vincent Mancini:
Yeah, I know.

Michael Corleone:
You don't make them any easier.

Vincent Mancini:
I know.

Michael Corleone:
Alright, go on. Get out of here.

[Vincent leaves]

Connie Corleone:
Michael.

Michael Corleone:
Yes.

Connie Corleone:
Now they'll fear you.

Michael Corleone:
Maybe they should fear you.

Michael Corleone:
[after learning of Zasa's assassination] Don't ever again give an order like that again. Not while I'm alive. You understand?

Vincent Mancini:
Uncle Mike, it had to be done. You were too sick to make a decision. I got the go-ahead from Neri. I got the go-ahead from Connie.

Michael Corleone:
Connie.

Vincent Mancini:
It was the right thing to do.

Michael Corleone:
It was the wrong thing to do. I command this family, right or wrong. It was not what I WANTED! Understand?

Vincent Mancini:
Yes.

[Michael looks at Neri]

Al Neri:
Yes.

[Michael looks at Connie for a long time]

Connie Corleone:
Yes!

Michael Corleone:
Vincent, help me to my bed. I want to talk to you alone. [in his room] Your father, my brother...he and I. Opposites. But I never doubted his love. He would do anything for me. But his temper. It was too much. Clouded his judgement. I don't want to see the same thing happen to you.

Michael Corleone:
When they come... they come at what you love.