He worked as co-scriptwriter on many of Francesco Rosi's movies, including "Le mani sulla città" (1963), "Uomini contro" (1970) and "Cristo si è fermato a Eboli" (1979). In September 2001 he won a Premio Campiello lifetime achievement award and in 2005 "L'estro quotidiano" was selected as the winner of the Viareggio Prize for fiction.