Francis Ford Coppola quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Francis Ford Coppola on Wise Famous Quotes.

I have more of a vivid imagination than I have talent. I cook up ideas. It's just a characteristic.

If you're a person who says yes most of the time, you'll find yourself in the hotel business and the restaurant business.

A director is the ringmaster of a circus that's inventing itself.

I had a number of teachers who hated me. I didn't do well in school.

I was raised as a Catholic, but I didn't like the Catholic Church at all. I thought the nuns were mean.

There's nothing creative about living within your means.

Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.

A number of images put together a certain way become something quite above and beyond what any of them are individually.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Most directors have one masterpiece by which they are known. Kurosawa has at least eight or nine.

The things you get fired for when you're young are the same things that you get lifetime achievement awards for when you're old.

Art depends on luck and talent.

Work on nothing less than epic scale

'The Godfather' changed my life, for better or worse. It definitely made me have an older man's film career when I was 29.

I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians.

Lots of people have criticized my movies, but nobody has ever identified the real problem: I'm a sloppy filmmaker.

I had a number of very strong personalities in my family. My father was a concert flutist, the solo flute for Toscanini.

I think a sequel is a waste of money and time. I think movies should illuminate new stories.

I associate my motion picture career more with being unhappy and scared, or being under the gun, than with anything pleasant.

I made this movie for $40,000, which was this little black-and-white horror film called Dementia 13, which we made in about nine days.

The internet in hotels should be free - and I really resent it when they charge you five dollars for a bottle of water beside your bed.

I was interested in the idea of succession - showing a father and a son both in their own time and drawing a contrast

The time a movie is made is unique, not only from the talent that is available but if the public was ready for it.

Time is the lens through which dreams are captured.

Death is what makes life an event.

Music is a big factor in helping the illusion of the film come to life. The same way music brings back different periods of our lives.

I gladly, I voluntarily gave up the kind of commercial film career I had going as soon as I had enough money to finance my own films.

I became quite successful very young, and it was mainly because I was so enthusiastic and I just worked so hard at it.

The essence of cinema is editing.

I was never sloppy with other people's money. Only my own. Because I figure, well, you can be.

In a sense, I think a movie is really a little like a question and when you make it, that's when you get the answer.

We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane.

I had been a kid that moved so much, I didn't have a lot of friends. Theater really represented camaraderie.

Whom God wishes to destroy, He first makes successful in show business.

I remember growing up with television, from the time it was just a test pattern, with maybe a little bit of programming once in a while.

Movies are the art form most like man's imagination.

We teach our boys to firebomb villages, but we won't let them write fuck on the side of their planes because it's obscene.

If the movie works, nobody notices the mistakes ... If the movie doesn't work, the only thing people notice are mistakes.

If I have to be remembered for something, I want it remembered that I really liked children and was a good camp counselor.

Cinema without risk is like having no sex and expecting to have a baby.

I always found the film world unpleasant. It's all about the schedule, and never really flew for me.

Some critics are stimulating in that they make you realise how you could do better, and those are valued.

I wanted to write and direct movies and not be forced to adapt them from a bestselling book.

To make great movies, there is an element of risk. You have to say, 'Well, I am going to make this film, and it is not really a sure thing.'

George Lucas doesn't have the most physical stamina. He was so unhappy making Star Wars that he just vowed he'd never do it again.

You don't have to specialize - do everything that you love and then, at some time, the future will come together for you in some form.

I've been offered lots of movies. There's always some actor who's doing a project and would like to have me do it.

We do things for good reasons that are bad.

'Godfather' was very classical - the way it was shot, the style - the whole driving force of it was more classical, almost Shakespearean.

Movie-wise, there is nothing I wouldn't do again. It's not possible to make one perfect movie every time.

There can't be art without risk. It's like saying No Sex, and then expecting there to be children.

Collaboration is like the sex of creativity.

My talent is that I just try and try and try and try again and little by little it comes to something ...

So much of the art of film is to do less. To aspire to do less.

Usually, the stuff that's your best idea or work is going to be attacked the most.

The most adventurous thing I've done is learn how to fly a helicopter in the Philippines. One night we landed on a beach and slept on it.

I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing.

I know that if a film is ready to emerge out of what I write, I'll be able to go off and make it without asking anyone's permission.

Frank Capra was a prop man, I think. John Ford was a prop man. It was a little bit of a father and son thing, and you kind of worked your way up.

I thought I wanted to be a playwright because I was interested in stories and telling stories.

As long as I can make lots of money in other businesses, I'll continue to subsidize my own work.

Everything I do is personal. I have never made a movie that didn't have very strong personal resonance.

I realized I probably wouldn't make another film that cuts through commercial and creative things like 'Godfather' or 'Apocalypse.'

When I was 13, I worked for Western Union. When the telegrams came in, I would glue them on the paper and deliver them on my bicycle.

Anyone who's made film and knows about the cinema has a lifelong love affair with the experience. You never stop learning about film.

Films and hotels have many aspects that are the same. For example, there is always a big vision, an idea.

I like simplicity; I don't need luxury.

Listen, if there's one sure-fire rule that I have learned in this business, it's that I don't know anything about human nature.

I probably have genius. But no talent.

You ought to love what you're doing because, especially in a movie, over time you really will start to hate it.

My film is not a movie; it's not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam.

One of the most important tools that a filmmaker has are his/her notes.

I was the kind of kid that had some talents or ability, but it never came out in school.

I always think upon Lee Strasberg with warmth, and reviewing his wisdom is a pleasure.

I remember teachers who really singled me out for their discouragement.

It was the man's dream, and his inspiring attempt to make them come true that remain important.

I was a pretty shy, lonely kid. I blossomed about age 17, when I went to college.

We support each other in the Coppola family. We love the idea of everyone getting his place in the sun.

I'm very proud of my flops, as much as of my successes.

Drinking wine is just a part of life, like eating food.

I liked to work in a shop down in the basement and invent things and build gadgets.

I was always the black sheep of the family and always told that I was dumb, and I had a low IQ and did badly in school.

Wine is so much more than a beverage. It's a romance, a story, a drama-all of those things that are basically putting on a show.

I just admire people like Woody Allen, who every year writes an original screenplay. It's astonishing. I always wished that I could do that.

The photographer and the director are where reality and fantasy meet.

Ten Days That Shook The World, by Eisenstein, I went to see it, and I was so impressed with this film, so impressed with what cinema could do.

It takes no imagination to live within your means.

Most filmmakers can't afford to try something out that doesn't work.

I'm no longer dependent on the movie business to make a living. So if I want to make movies as other old guys would play golf, I can.

I never went to a psychologist or psychiatrist in my life. Never. You know, Italians are a little prejudiced against that kind of thing.

Sequels are not done for the audience or cinema or the filmmakers. It's for the distributor. The film becomes a brand.

By working in the morning, I find a sense of peace; it's isolated peace, but I can definitely be in touch with my feelings, and then I just start.

Today's winemakers still worry about quality.

But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?