Terry Gross: Now, what were some of the most difficult parts of adapting the novel into the screenplay, into the first—
Mario Puzo: It was a cinch!
Terry Gross: (laughing) Yeah?
Mario Puzo: Yeah, I mean, it was a cinch because it was the first time I'd ever written a screenplay, so I didn't know what I was doing. You know, and it came out right. And the story I tell is that after I had won two Academy Awards, you know, for the first two "Godfathers," I went out and bought a book on screenwriting because I figured I'd better learn, you know, what it's about because it was sort of off the top of my head. And then the first chapter, the book said, "Study Godfather I. It's the model of a screenplay." (laughing) So I was stuck with the book!
Mario Puzo: It was a cinch!
Terry Gross: (laughing) Yeah?
Mario Puzo: Yeah, I mean, it was a cinch because it was the first time I'd ever written a screenplay, so I didn't know what I was doing. You know, and it came out right. And the story I tell is that after I had won two Academy Awards, you know, for the first two "Godfathers," I went out and bought a book on screenwriting because I figured I'd better learn, you know, what it's about because it was sort of off the top of my head. And then the first chapter, the book said, "Study Godfather I. It's the model of a screenplay." (laughing) So I was stuck with the book!
—from an NPR interview with Puzo
in 1996
in 1996