In conversation with her grandson, Anthony, Jr., on the purpose of life:

LIVIA: Just in the paper the other day, a bunch of teenagers from The Delaware Water Gap, they overcrowded their car and it hit a tree and incinerated. They were all trapped, people heard them screaming, they couldn't get out. The safety belts did it. Buckled them in.
Anthony, Jr.: See? That's what I mean. What's the purpose?
Livia: Of what?
Anthony, Jr.: Being. Here on our planet. Earth. Those kids, they're dead meat. What's the use? What's the purpose?
LIVIA: Who says everything has a purpose? The world's a jungle. You want my advice. Anthony, don't expect happiness. You won't get it. People let you down. I won't mention any names. But, in the end, you die in your own arms.
Anthony, Jr.: You mean Š alone?
LIVIA: It's all a big nothing. What makes you think you're so special?

Livia on child-rearing:

LIVIA: I wasn't always perfect. But I did the best I could. You didn't like it - any of you - that I tried to tell you what to do. But little babies are animals. They're no different from dogs. Unless someone teaches them right from wrong. I was your mother. Who else was going to do it? And if you ask me, I did a pretty darn good job.

Livia on the state of the world:

LIVIA: The whole world's gone crazy. A woman in Pennsylvania shot her three children and set the house on fire.

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LIVIA: I read in the paper last week about a family in San Luis Obispo, California who died from trichinosis. Undercooked pork.
TONY: That was last year. That same family.
LIVIA: Listen to him, he knows everything.

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LIVIA: I don't drive when they're predicting rain.

In conversation with her grandson, AJ:

LIVIA: They sent you to a psychiatrist?
ANTHONY, JR.: Uh-huh.
LIVIA: That's crazy. It's all nonsense. It's nothing but a racket for the Jews.
ANTHONY, JR.: Dad goes.
LIVIA: He does not.
ANTHONY, JR.: Yes, he does.
LIVIA: To a psychiatrist?
ANTHONY, JR.: Yeah.
LIVIA: He does not.
ANTHONY, JR.: Does so.
LIVIA: Why do you say that? That's ridiculous!
ANTHONY, JR.: 'Cause it's true. I heard him and Mom talk about it.
LIVIA: Your father goes to a psychiatrist? What does he need a psychiatrist for?
ANTHONY, JR.: Is it okay if I take this pear, Gramma?
LIVIA: Hah. He's talking about his mother, that's what he's doing. Sure, he talks about me and complains. I did this, I did that. (CRYING) I handed over my life to my children on a silver platter. And this is how he repays me.

In other conversations:

LIVIA: What's he got to be depressed about? Nobody dumped him in the glue factory and sold his house out from underneath him.

Livia, in conversation with her daughter-in-law, Carmela, on her greatest skill:

CARMELA: What am I talking about? I'm talking about this. This poor mother, nobody cares about me, victim crap. It's textbook manipulation and I hate seeing Tony so upset over it.
LIVIA: I know how to talk to people.
CARMELA: I'm a mother, too, don't forget. You know the power you have and you use it like a pro.
LIVIA: What power do I have? I'm a shut-in.
CARMELA: Livia, you're bigger than life. You are his mother. And I don't think for one second that you don't know what you're doing to him.
LIVIA: What? Me? What'd I do?