14 Best Mario Puzo Monologues – Opening Monologue

The Godfather (Bonasera)

Category: Movie Role: Bonasera From: The Godfather

I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom but I taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a “boy friend,” not an Italian. She went to the movies with him. She stayed out late. I didn’t protest. Two months ago he took her for a drive, with another boy friend. They made her drink whiskey and then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. So they beat her. Like an animal. When I went to the hospital her nose was broken. Her jaw was shattered, held together by wire. She couldn’t even weep because of the pain. But I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life. A beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful again. Sorry… I went to the police, like a good American. These two boys were brought to trial. The judge sentenced them to three years in prison, and suspended the sentence. Suspended sentence! They went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool, and those two bastards, they smiled at me. Then I said to my wife, “For justice, we must go to Don Corleone.”

The Godfather (Jack Woltz)

Category: Movie Role: Jack Woltz From: The Godfather

You don’t understand. Johnny Fontane never gets that movie. That part is perfect for him. It’ll make him a big star. I’m gonna run him out of the business. And let me tell you why. Johnny Fontane ruined one of Woltz International’s most valuable protégés. For five years we had her under training, singing lessons, acting lessons, dancing lessons. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on her. I was gonna make her a big star. And let me be even more frank, just to show you that I’m not a hard-hearted man, that it’s not all dollars and cents. She was beautiful, she was young, she was innocent, she was the greatest piece of ass I’ve ever had, and I’ve had ‘em all over the world. And then Johnny Fontane comes along with his olive oil voice and guinea charm and she runs off. She threw it all away just to make me look ridiculous. And a man in my position can’t afford to be made to look ridiculous.Now you get the hell out of here! And if that goombah tries any rough stuff, you tell him, I ain’t no band leader. Yea, I heard that story.

The Godfather (Peter Clemenza)

Category: Movie Role: Peter Clemenza From: The Godfather

Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

The Godfather (Santino Corleone)

Category: Movie Role: Santino Corleone From: The Godfather

What are you gonna do? Nice college boy, huh? Didn’t want to get mixed up in the family business. Now you want to gun down a police captain. Why? Because he slapped you in the face a little bit? What do you think this is the Army where you can shoot ’em from a mile away? You gotta get up close like this and, badda-bing, you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit. C’mere. … You’re taking this very personal. Tom, this is business and this man is taking it very, very personal. … Hey, listen, I want somebody good, and I mean very good, to plant that gun. I don’t want my brother coming out of that toilet with just his dick in his hands, alright?

The Godfather (Vito Corleone)

Category: Movie Role: Vito Corleone From: The Godfather

You can act like a man! … What’s the matter with you? Is this how you turned out? A Hollywood finocchio that cries like a woman? “What can I do? What can I do?” What is that nonsense? Ridiculous. You spend time with your family? … Good. ‘Cause a man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man. Come here … you look terrible. I want you to eat. I want you to rest a while. And in a month from now, this Hollywood bigshot’s gonna give you what you want.

The Godfather (Vito Corleone)

Category: Movie Role: Vito Corleone From: The Godfather

You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you or my boy to me? I forgo the vengeance of my son. But my youngest son had to leave this country because of this Sollozzo business. So now I have to make arrangements to bring him back safely cleared of all these false charges. But I’m a superstitious man. And if some unlucky accident should befall him, if he should be shot in the head by a police officer, or if should hang himself in his jail cell, or if he’s struck by a bolt of lightning… then I’m going to blame some of the people in this room… and that, I do not forgive. But, that aside, let say that I swear, on the souls of my grandchildren, that I will not be the one to break the peace we have made here today.

The Godfather Part II (Fredo Corleone)

Category: Movie Role: Fredo Corleone From: The Godfather Part II

Taken care of me. Mike, you’re my kid brother, and you take care of me? Did you ever think of that. Ever once? Send Fredo off to do this, send Fredo to take care of that… take care of some little unimportant night club here, and there; pick somebody up at the airport. I’m your older brother Mike and I was stepped over! … It ain’t the way I wanted it! I can handle things. I’m smart. Not like everybody says, like dumb. I’m smart and I want respect!

The Godfather Part II (Hyman Roth)

Category: Movie Role: Hyman Roth From: The Godfather Part II

There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada… made a fortune, your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI’s on the way to the West Coast. That kid’s name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man, a man of vision and guts. And there isn’t even a plaque, or a signpost or a statue of him in that town! Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn’t angry; I knew Moe, I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead, I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we’ve chosen; I didn’t ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business!

The Godfather Part II (Kay Adams-Corleone)

Category: Movie Role: Kay Adams-Corleone From: The Godfather Part II

Oh Michael. Michael, you are blind. It wasn’t a miscarriage, it was an abortion. An abortion, Michael. Just like our marriage is an abortion, something that’s unholy and evil. I didn’t want your son, Michael. I wouldn’t bring another one of your sons in this world. It was an abortion, Michael. It was a son; a son, and I had it killed ’cause this must all end. I know now that it’s over; I knew it then. There would be no way, Michael. No way you could forgive me. Not with this Sicilian thing that’s been going on for two thousand years.

The Godfather Part II (Michael Corleone)

Category: Movie Role: Michael Corleone From: The Godfather Part II

What do you want from me? Do you expect me to let you go? Do you expect me to let you take my children from me? Don’t you know me? Don’t you know that that’s an impossibility? That that could never happen? That I’d use all my power to keep something like that from happening? Don’t you know that? Kay, now in time, you’ll feel differently. You’ll be glad I stopped you now. I know that. I know you blame me for losing the baby. Yes. I know what that meant to you. I’ll make it up to you, Kay. I swear I’ll make it up to you. I’m gonna change. I’ll change. I’ve learned that I have the strength to change. And you’ll forget about this miscarriage. And we’ll have another child. And we’ll go on, you and I. We’ll go on.