All Quotes

"Rino's songs are not songs of remembrance, they are songs of the present and the future. The first word I associate with him is: forward. And the Rino of thirty years ago, that Rino, even today, would be one step ahead of all of us."

"He used to write down the lyrics to his songs directly on napkins in restaurants, so as not to lose any of his inspiration."

"When he took to the stage at Sanremo in 1978 to sing Gianna, he looked like he had stepped out of the famous song by Domenico Modugno: he wore a top hat and tailcoat with a boutonniere. With his blend of irony, optimism, romanticism, and nonsense, he was quite unique on the Italian scene, an outsider, like Buscaglione."

"Our destiny is always in our name. Rino Gaetano has two first names: Rino and Gaetano. When you address someone by their first name, it is because you know them, because they are a friend. He even has two [...] Rino and Gaetano, one cheerful and one sad, one studious and one who ends up behind the blackboard, one tender and one sarcastic, one committed and one who doesn't care. Two brothers, two only children, as we all are in a way. Unique."

"I remember everything. Sanremo, the top hat and striped shirt, the explorer's hat. I love hats, and maybe it's his fault."

"Rino Gaetano is the most eccentric, free, and intuitive Italian singer-songwriter. He was a maverick. He was capable of going to Sanremo just to make fun of everyone. A man who relied on his talent, with no other safety net."

"Madam [Susanna Agnelli], perhaps you don't know him. This young man in formal dress [...] is called Rino Gaetano, he is a singer-songwriter who writes ironic, playful, light-hearted songs. He wrote one that was quite successful this summer, ‘'Nuntereggae più’', which means “I can't stand you anymore,” and he, who will soon devote himself to setting the ‘'Yellow Pages’' to music because he makes lists of names, has made a list of names involving a number of people, including me."

"(During A Gino Paoli on August 19, 1977) I would like to introduce you to a friend who came to visit me and who amuses me. He amuses me because he is the heir to a certain type of nonsense, of marinetterie, of the most ancient surrealism. His name is Rino Gaetano."

"In the world of music, he passed like spring, very quickly..."

"Kay Presidente Duterte, ang ating dating Pangulo na Oktubre pa lamang itinaas na ang aking kamay, at sa kanyang anak na hanggang sa huling sandali si VP Inday Sara ay ako'y kinakampanya. (To President Duterte, our former president who raised my hand as early as October last year, and his daughter VP Inday Sara, who up to the final moments continued to campaign for me.)"

"Ang tagumpay na ito, kahit gaano kailap at kahirap ay isang katibayan na kapag ikaw ay nanindigan para sa tama, mananalo ka," she added. (This victory, although seemingly elusive and difficult to achieve, is proof that if you stand up for the right things, you will win.)"

"Bata pa lang kami ni Bongbong, alam na ng buong pamilya na ang problema sa kanya. Sa totoo lang, mababasa naman ng lahat ang testimonya ng aking ama patungkol sa kanyang ugali at gawain. (When Bongbong and I were young, the whole family knew that he had a problem. In fact, everyone can read my father's testimony about his behavior and actions.)"

""I just leap my faith up because that’s the only thing I can do.”"

"Hinihingi ko na tayo ay umuwi na. Mamahinga. Alang-alang sa iyong kalusugan. Kaya kung mabigo at mawala sa ’yo ang posisyon pero hindi ko kayang mawala ka sa amin. (My appeal is for us to come home. Rest, for the sake of your health. We can bear it if you fail and lose your position, but I can’t bear it if we lose you)."

"I am still shy when I go to interviews. I want a lot of people to come and watch my film but I can't face (that many) people. After being in the industry for 13-14 years now, I still don't know how to handle stardom. My fans feel bad that their hero doesn't come out so much. I'm better than before, and trying to improve."

"When it comes to delving into different genres, I am receptive to any. The script has to intrigue me. I don’t set specific parameters on the type of film I should undertake in advance."

"I went to college in buses… (given) my family background, that was big, you know? When I went in the bus, people (said), 'Yeah, he's from a very big family… So, these things helped me work harder."

"There is a profile that stands above the political one, and that is the moral profile."

"[In 1986] [...] Juventus is a bit like the Christian Democracy party: even when it plays badly, it is always at the top, a little lower, a little higher, but always at the top."

"In recent times, Giovanni Goria has been traveling all over Italy with his traveling theater troupe to promote the biggest deal around today: the 200 trillion lire pie that concerns the health and social security sectors and is tempting to the large private groups that manage insurance companies, namely the Agnelli, Ferruzzi, De Benedetti and Berlusconi families. Goria has been traveling around promoting the merchandise. Sometimes I saw the liberal De Lorenzo with him, the man who is now Minister of Health. :*‘’"Goria propagandista d'affari‘’, ‘'La Stampa’', August 12, 1989."

"The country will have to face great sacrifices, and great sacrifices are accepted when one is guided, in having to make them, by high moral dignity. It is that strength that Alcide De Gasperi had in leading Italy out of defeat and toward democratic reconstruction."

"Democratic balance is also marked by the fact that, on the one hand, financial power controls the levers of the market economy, while on the other hand, the masses, having achieved universal suffrage, can obtain, through parliamentary representation, civil rights and therefore social rights, the welfare state."

"(About Arnaldo Forlani) We will not be late today. We must allow the secretary to go to the Pope. At least for a blessing: he needs it. In every respect."

"As Minister of Labor, he completed, with the approval of the Workers' Statute, a reform that would enhance the role of trade unions and which, in his opinion, would mark the completion of the system of constitutional freedoms in our legal system."

"The then Minister of Labor did not conclude negotiations with the metalworkers until I agreed, after several hours of resistance, to rehire a hundred workers who had been responsible for violence. I remember that, blackmailed by these conditions, I agreed to the rehiring. And the humiliation was not in accepting, or suffering, this form of blackmail, but in returning to Turin and informing the factory production managers that I had given in and that they had to rehire these hundred violent workers. That was the beginning of ten disastrous years of brutality and violence in the factory, which was only corrected after more than three thousand days."

"His lifestyle had the rare strength of a fundamental choice: the capacity for contradiction."

"His intransigence always had popular roots and connections. Alien to secular temptations, freed from instrumental conventions, he strove toward far-reaching ideals. A clear religion. His lesson: never give in."

"A man who has constantly fought to maintain a strong link between institutional structures and the needs of the world of work."

"A life characterized by a refusal to compromise. He paid a heavy price for this conception of political dignity; he was not always understood, and many friends turned their backs on him."

"I once told him, “You're gruff even when you say thank you.”"

"(About Carlo Donat-Cattin) His intransigence always had popular roots and connections. Alien to secular temptations, freed from instrumental conventions, he strove toward lofty ideals. A clear religion. His lesson: never give in."

"Andreotti did everything and the opposite of everything; Forlani did nothing and the opposite of nothing."

"The real Italian anomaly is not Berlusconi, but that Forlani is doing community service and D'Alema is in the Prime Minister's office."

"When I see ministers using Twitter like misfits in work chats use WhatsApp—smiling faces, waving hands, dancing sluts—I feel a poignant nostalgia for Forlani."

"We won't be late today. We must allow the secretary to go to the Pope. At least for a blessing: he needs it. In every respect."

"“In art, having one’s own language is essential.”"

"“I am ready to run away from any country the moment humor is lost.”"

"“The percentage of public art that truly works, that genuinely moves people, is actually very low — it doesn’t exceed 2%, not even close.”"

"We are still so accustomed to that old life that my father haggles over a few rupees. I do too. We have fulfilled our desires and aspirations, but our mentality is still stuck there."

"Look, everyone tries to do a good job. But if someone acts well, at least it can be said that so-and-so did a good job. That's why an actor survives in the industry. If a film is a hit but the actor lacks talent, that actor won't be able to last long."

"The stars and makers of Bengali films fight with the films in other languages to earn the respect they deserve. But in the South, the audience does that fight on behalf of the makers."

"Though he was a good philosopher and theologian, he was a better religious. Those well acquainted with him are convinced that he never lost his baptismal innocence. Neither his holiness nor his learning made him a disagreeable companion or an undesirable friend. It would be hard to say whether he was more admired or loved by those who came into contact with him."

"“Actually, it’s just one girl who’s going to be crowned, but I know in my heart, every one of us, we are alright even without that crown.”"

"I don’t want to know movie directors."

"I have no television – I hate it"

"I don’t think Ripley is gay. He appreciates good looks in other men, that’s true. But he’s married in later books. I’m not saying he’s very strong in the sex department. But he makes it in bed with his wife."

"A man who gambled had no business with money."

"When my family went in for religion and all that, I didn't really fancy so much learning and went out to see where the money grew. Some of those who know me say I found it."

"You bother me anymore, I'll have you in the penitentiary, and you'll stay there 'til I let you out."

"A man that gambles had better be without money, anyway, I may put it to some good use; you wouldn’t know how."