Michael Corleone: What's wrong with being a lawyer?

Kay Corleone: Nothing, except he doesn't want it. He loves music; he wants his life to be in music.

Michael Corleone: Well, music is great. I love music but he should finish what he started. Anthony.

Anthony Vito Corleone: I'm going my own way.

Michael Corleone: Your own way.

Anthony Vito Corleone: Uh-huh.

Michael Corleone: Professional singer.

Anthony Vito Corleone: That's right.

Michael Corleone: And what happens if you fail?

Anthony Vito Corleone: I won't fail.

Michael Corleone: Men always believe that. With a law degree you're taking on insurance. After that you can do anything you want. You can work for me.

Anthony Vito Corleone: I will never work for you. I have bad memories.

Michael Corleone: All families have bad memories.

Anthony Vito Corleone: I will always be your son, but I will never have anything to do with your business.

Michael Corleone: Anthony, finish the law degree.

Anthony Vito Corleone: No.

Kay Corleone: That he got from you. That 'no.'

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

Kay Corleone: Convince him of what?

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

Kay 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 Corleone: Alright. Tony knows you killed Fredo.

Michael Corleone: Why did you come here?

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

Explore more quotes:


About the author

This page was created by our editorial team. Each page is manually curated, researched, collected, and issued by our staff writers. Quotes contained on this page have been double checked for their citations, their accuracy and the impact it will have on our readers.

Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.

Kendra Syrdal is a writer, editor, partner, and senior publisher for The Thought & Expression Company. Over the last few years she has been personally responsible for writing, editing, and producing over 30+ million pageviews on Thought Catalog.