Death doesn't frighten me, it bothers me. It bothers me for example that someone can be there tomorrow but me I am no longer there. What bothers me is no longer being alive, not being dead.

- Mario Monicelli

A comedy that is ironic, sometimes bitter, in some cases even dramatic, tragic: This is what Italian comedy is.

- Mario Monicelli

I always look at a group of people who want to attempt an enterprise greater than their means. They begin on this enterprise and they fail.

- Mario Monicelli

The themes that make one laugh always stem from poverty, hunger, misery, old age, sickness, and death. These are the themes that make Italians laugh, anyway.

- Mario Monicelli