Francis Ford Coppola Quotes & Sayings

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

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

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

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

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

Whom God wishes to destroy, He first makes successful in show business. — Francis Ford Coppola

I like to work in the morning. I like to sometimes go to a place where I'm all alone where I'm not going to get a phone call early that hurts my feelings, because once my feelings are hurt, I'm dead in the water. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

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

Roger Corman exploited all of the young people who worked for him, but he really gave you responsibility and opportunity. So it was kind of a fair deal. — Francis Ford Coppola

Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos. — Francis Ford Coppola

I've been failing for, like, ten or eleven years. When it turns, it'll turn. Right now I'm just trying to squeeze through a very tight financial period, get the movie out, and put my things in order. — Francis Ford Coppola

When I do a novel, I don't really use the script, I use the book; when I did Apocalypse Now, I used Heart of Darkness. Novels usually have so much rich material. — Francis Ford Coppola

Steven Spielberg is unique. I feel that the kinds of movies he loves are the same kinds of movies that the big mass audience loves. He's very fortunate because he can do the things he naturally likes the best, and he's been very successful. — Francis Ford Coppola

You have to really be courageous about your instincts and your ideas. Otherwise you'll just knuckle under, and things that might have been memorable will be lost. — Francis Ford Coppola

It's ironic that at age 32, at probably the greatest moment of my career, with The Godfather having such an enormous success, I wasn't even aware of it, because I was somewhere else under the deadline again. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

I think it's better to be overly ambitious and fail than to be underambitious and succeed in a mundane way. I have been very fortunate. I failed upward in my life! — Francis Ford Coppola

Most filmmakers can't afford to try something out that doesn't work. — Francis Ford Coppola

I've been blessed with enough wealth that I can make a film myself up to a certain budget. So one way I thought I would reinvent myself was just to make these very small, personal films that I've financed myself. — Francis Ford Coppola

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don't take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn't been seen before? — Francis Ford Coppola

I was terrible at maths, but I could grasp science, and I used to love to read about the lives of the scientists. I wanted to be a scientist or an inventor. — Francis Ford Coppola

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

When newspapers started to publish the box office scores of movies, I was horrified. Those results are totally fake because they never include the promotion budget. — Francis Ford Coppola

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

Drinking wine is just a part of life, like eating food. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

I had an older brother who was very interested in literature, so I had an early exposure to literature, and and theater. My father sometimes would work in musical comedies. — Francis Ford Coppola

I used to love going into local hardware stores, to look at little things they made locally. Nowadays it's harder, though you can still do it in Vietnam. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess. — Francis Ford Coppola

I have always credited the writer of the original material above the title: Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Bram Stoker's Dracula, or John Grisham's The Rainmaker. I felt that I didn't have the right to Francis Coppola's anything unless I had written the story and the screenplay. — Francis Ford Coppola

All of a sudden, there are great Japanese films, or great Italian films, or great Australian films. It's usually because there are a number of people that cross-pollinated each other. — Francis Ford Coppola

We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can't steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that's how you will find your voice. — Francis Ford Coppola

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

I'm very proud of my flops, as much as of my successes. — Francis Ford Coppola

The essence of cinema is editing. It's the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy. — Francis Ford Coppola

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

The essence of cinema is editing. — Francis Ford Coppola

The only TV I would be interested in exploring would be live television. There's no substitute for a team of artists performing at their peak live when failure is possible. It's a high-wire act. That excites me. — Francis Ford Coppola

There's a hormone secreted into the bloodstream of most writers that makes them hate their own work while they are doing it, or immediately after. This, coupled with the chorus of critical reaction from those privileged to take a first look, is almost enough to discourage further work entirely. — Francis Ford Coppola

The photographer and the director are where reality and fantasy meet. — Francis Ford Coppola

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

It is a little disappointing to see that your legs are not as strong. But I like the idea of growing old, and the thought of approaching death is not particularly daunting to me. — Francis Ford Coppola

The whole reason one wants to do lower budget films is because the lower the budget, the bigger the ideas, the bigger the themes, the more interesting the art. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

When I was going for my graduate degree, I decided I was going to make a feature film as my thesis. That's what I was famous for-that I had my thesis film be a feature film, which was 'You're a Big Boy Now.' — Francis Ford Coppola

I don't go on set with an army of people because the most expensive elements of a movie production are the plane tickets, the hotel rooms, food and gasoline. If you're willing to discover new colleagues in the place that you are, you can save a ton of money. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

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

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

I had a heartbreaking experience when I was 9. I always wanted to be a guard. The most wonderful girl in the world was a guard. When I got polio and then went back to school, they made me a guard. A teacher took away my guard button. — Francis Ford Coppola

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

I landed a job with Roger Corman. The job was to write the English dialogue for a Russian science fiction picture. I didn't speak any Russian. He didn't care whether I could understand what they were saying; he wanted me to make up dialogue. — Francis Ford Coppola

I just finished a film a few days ago, and I came home and said I learned so much today. So if I can come home from working on a little film after doing it for 45 years and say, I learned so much today, that shows something about the cinema. Because the cinema is very young. It's only 100 years old. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

We were raised in an Italian-American household, although we didn't speak Italian in the house. We were very proud of being Italian, and had Italian music, ate Italian food. — Francis Ford Coppola

My film is not a movie; it's not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. — Francis Ford Coppola

When I was sixteen or seventeen, I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a playwright. But everything I wrote, I thought, was weak. And I can remember falling asleep in tears because I had no talent the way I wanted to have. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

A director is the ringmaster of a circus that's inventing itself. — Francis Ford Coppola

Cinema without risk is like having no sex and expecting to have a baby. — Francis Ford Coppola

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

Work on nothing less than epic scale — Francis Ford Coppola

My big goal in life was always to figure out how I can make a lot of money so I can go off and make films irrespective of the opinion of the three or four critics who seem to rule the roost. — Francis Ford Coppola

We do things for good reasons that are bad. — Francis Ford Coppola

Movies are the art form most like man's imagination. — Francis Ford Coppola

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.' — Francis Ford Coppola

I remember teachers who really singled me out for their discouragement. — Francis Ford Coppola

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

I live near San Francisco in the most beautiful spot on earth and enjoy myself in many ways. Yes, I love to work, which for now is to think and read and write, so it's all a dream come true. — Francis Ford Coppola

Without a doubt, I was born to want to make cinema, but the kind of cinema I want to make is not like commercial movies, which I enjoy myself, but I wanted to be the kind of filmmaker who wrote original work, sort of like a novelist would who deals with who we are and our times or our relationships. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

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

In America, even the critics - which is a pity - tend to genre-ize things. They have a hard time when genres get mixed. They want to categorize things. That's why I love Wes Anderson's films and the Coen Brothers, because you don't know what you're going to get, and very often you get something that you don't expect and that's just what a genre's not supposed to do. — Francis Ford Coppola

A lot of the young people make beautiful films or big films or are able to finance them, but they can't get anyone to distribute them, they can't get anyone to see them, so they go to these thousands of film festivals. So I still believe that even though a young kid might be able to make a masterpiece or something that changes the direction of cinema, the issue of how to get it to people is still not solved. — Francis Ford Coppola

I like simplicity; I don't need luxury. — Francis Ford Coppola

I thought I wanted to be a playwright because I was interested in stories and telling stories. — Francis Ford Coppola

People feel the worst film I made was 'Jack.' But to this day, when I get checks from old movies I've made, 'Jack' is one of the biggest ones. No one knows that. If people hate the movie, they hate the movie. I just wanted to work with Robin Williams. — Francis Ford Coppola

It takes no imagination to live within your means. — Francis Ford Coppola

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

Art depends on luck and talent. — Francis Ford Coppola

They needed someone to write a script of The Great Gatsby very quickly for the movie they were making. I took this job so I'd be sure to have some dough to support my family. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

I had to get a job, and of course, the job was 'The Godfather.' That made me be something I didn't know I was going to be. I became a big-shot director. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

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. — Francis Ford Coppola

In kindergarten that used to be my job, to tell them fairytales. I liked Hans Christian Andersen, and the Grimm fairy tales, all the classic fairy tales. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

That's part of the requirement for me to be an artist is that you're trying to share your personal existence with others and trying to illuminate modern life, trying to understand life. — Francis Ford Coppola

Time is the lens through which dreams are captured. — Francis Ford Coppola

When I was about 9, I had polio, and people were very frightened for their children, so you tended to be isolated. I was paralyzed for a while, so I watched television. — Francis Ford Coppola

Death is what makes life an event. — Francis Ford Coppola

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

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. — Francis Ford Coppola