Best books . . . chosen by Chazz Palminteri

The Bible. I’m not a born-again Christian, but I am a Catholic. Reading the Bible gives me a great feeling. I’m a believer in righteousness. My favorite phrase is from Matthew 7:13-14: “Wide is the gate and broad the road which leads to destruction . . . But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life.” I try to go through that narrow gate in life, to do the right thing.

Dante’s Inferno by Dante Alighieri (Signet, $6). The story of a man’s journey to salvation. He begins his life at 35 and has to go through hell before he can get there. It’s incredibly well written and full of allegory. I named my son after Dante.

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (Dover, $2). I read this when I was very young. I think it was a wise guy who gave it to me. Machiavelli was one of the first to ask, “Is it better to be loved or feared?” My father used to say, “Money makes good people better and bad people worse.” You have to be aware of that evil.

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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Penguin, $8). This book is just so perfect and so wonderful. I read it a long time ago and need to read it again. I remember thinking, What a great piece of literature! With the story of George and Lenny, Steinbeck had captured the human spirit.

How to Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation by Rudolf Steiner (Steiner, $17). Steiner founded anthroposophy, which is the study of humans through spiritual means. This is a great work. Steiner teaches us that we have to suffer to learn; the world is only perfect because it’s imperfect. He said that most people go through life unconscious, and as soon as you become conscious, your life will change. That happened for me. I didn’t start writing until later in life, and once I did, I was finally conscious.