"I was forty-five years old and tired of being an artist. Besides, I owed $20,000 to relatives, finance companies, banks and assorted bookmakers and shylocks. It was really time to grow up and sell out as Lenny Bruce once advised. So I told my editors OK, I'll write a book about the Mafia..." It explains Puzo's reasons for writing The Godfather... "I have written three novels. The Godfather is not as good as the preceding two; I wrote it to make money..." Other quotations are: "I'm ashamed to admit that I wrote The Godfather entirely from research. I never met a real honest-to-god gangster..."