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Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola Quotes

Film director

Francis Ford Coppola, born on April 7, 1939, is an influential American film director known for his profound understanding of cinema and unique artistic style. His most famous works include the 'Godfather' series and 'Apocalypse Now'.

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Famous Francis Ford Coppola Quotes

“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.”

Sometimes Father Literature Comedy Brother Theater Musical Exposure Older Brother

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“I have much to learn from my daughter Sofia. Her minimalism exposes my limitations: I'm too instinctive and operatic, I put too much heart into my work, I get lost sometimes in bizarre things - it's my Italian heritage.”

Heart Sometimes Lost Too Much Daughter Limitation My Daughter Italian Heritage Bizarre Minimalism

Author: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.”

Writing Care Wanted Jobs Speak Fiction Science Fiction Dialogue Roger

Author: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.”

Sometimes Feelings Water Hurt Morning Phones Phone Calls All Alone Hurt My Feelings

Author: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.”

Thinking Way Writing Dream Earth Beautiful Enjoy Spots Dreams Come True San Francisco

Author: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!”

Thinking Way Has Beens Failing Succeed Fortunate Ambitious Mundane

Author: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.”

Looks Littles Made Stills Used Harder Stores Locals Little Things Vietnam Hardware Used To Love

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“I wanted to be a film student again, as a man in my 60s. To go someplace alone and see what you can cook up, with non-existent budgets. I didn't want to be surrounded by comforts and colleagues, which you have when when you're a big time director. I wanted to write personal works.”

Men Want Writing Bigs Wanted Film Students Comfort Directors Cooks Budgets Colleagues Film Students

Author: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.”

Wanted Used Terrible Scientist Math Inventor Love To Read Used To Love

Author: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.”

Way I Can Enough Film Certain Wealth Blessed One Way Budgets

Author: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.”

Christian Jobs Used Tales Used To Be Classic Fairy Fairy Tale Fairytale Kindergarten Grimm

Author: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.”

Littles Ideas Strong Growing Legs Growing Old Disappointing Approaching Death

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“My family were symphonic musicians and in the opera. Also, it was my era, the love of radio. We used to listen to the radio at night, close our eyes and see movies far more beautiful than you can photograph.”

Eye Beautiful Used Night Musician My Family Photograph Radio Eras Opera

Author: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.”

People Ifs Knows Feels Made Wanted Film Hate Actors Worst Checks Movie This Day Robins Old Movie

Author: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.”

People Kind Young Opportunity Deals Responsibility Fairs Roger

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“Sound is your friend because sound is much cheaper than picture, but it has equal effect on the audience - in some ways, perhaps more effect because it does it in a very indirect way.”

Way Doe Sound Audience Effects Equal Cheaper Indirect

Author: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.”

Feels Kind Bigs Can Do Audience Successful Mass Unique Likes Fortunate

Author: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.”

Trying Artist Existence Share Modern Requirements Modern Life

Author: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.”

Would Be Artist Team Television Tvs Performing Substitutes Exploring Wire Live Television

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“The professional world was much more unpleasant than I thought. I was always wishing I could get back that enthusiasm I had when I was doing shows at college.”

World Shows Wish College Enthusiasm Get Back

Author: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.”

Want Art Ideas Reason Whole Film Interesting Bigger Budgets Theme

Author: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.”

Writing Jobs Actors Support Needed My Family Scripts Movie Dough Needed Someone

Author: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.”

House Speak Proud Raised Italian Household Italian Food Italian American Being Italian

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“When a movie is about to come out on its initial debut, there are a lot of people involved - the financiers, the studio and the producers and also, many times, the foreign distributors. So it is a time of tremendous pressure and uncertainty.”

People Involved Pressure Studios Producers Uncertainty Initials Debut Distributors Financiers

Author: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.”

Heart Book Use Used Darkness Novel Rich Materials Scripts Apocalypse Heart Of Darkness

Author: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.”

People Children Television Frightened Isolated Paralyzed Polio Polio Vaccine

Author: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.”

Results Office Boxes Newspapers Budgets Fake Score Publish Promotion Box Office

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“When that happens - when risk is taken and the filmmakers dive into the subject matter without a parachute - very often what you get it something with those qualities that make it age well with the public.”

Wells Matter Happens Age Quality Taken Risk Subjects Filmmaker Subject Matter Parachutes

Author: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.”

Want Kind Wanted Enjoy Born Deals Doubt Originals Cinema Novelists Filmmaker Our Time Who We Are Our Relationship

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“You're in a profession in which absolutely everybody is telling you their opinion, which is different. That's one of the reasons George Lucas never directed again.”

Different Reason Opinion Profession

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“I was excited to discover, in this tale by Eliade, the key themes that I most hope to understand better - time, consciousness and the dream-like basis of reality.”

Reality Consciousness Keys Bases Excited Tales Theme

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“There's nothing creative about living within your means.”

Mean Inspiring Creative Filmmaker Movie

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“Everyone knows the phenomenon of trying to hold your breath underwater - how at first it's alright and you can handle it, and then as it gets closer and closer to the time when you must breathe, how urgent the need becomes, the lust and the hunger to breathe. And then the panic sets in when you begin to think that you won't be able to breathe - and finally, when you take in air and the anxiety subsides...that's what it's like to be a vampire and need blood.”

Thinking Knows Needs Trying Firsts Able Air Blood Anxiety Breaths Hunger Breathe Lust Handle Vampire Phenomenon Panic Urgent Alright Underwater

Author: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.”

Motivational Together Past Form

Author: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.”

Trying Years Success Order Turns Work Failing Periods Right Now Ten Financial Eleven

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

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

Reality Fantasy Directors Photographer

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

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

Ideas Father Son Drawing Contrast Succession

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

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

Sex Risk Baby Cinema Expecting

Author: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.”

Thinking Littles Actors Answers Movie

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

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

Known Directors Eight Nine Masterpiece Kurosawa

Author: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.”

Trying Littles Talent Try Again

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“Death is what makes life an event.”

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“The essence of cinema is editing.”

Essence Cinema Editing

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

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

Directors Circus Inventing

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“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.”

Stories Shows Romance Drama Wine Beverages

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“Time is the lens through which dreams are captured.”

Dream Luxury Lenses Captured

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

“Although knowledge of structure is helpful, real creativity comes from leaps of faith in which you jump to something illogical. But those leaps form the memorable moments in movies and plays.”

Real Play Moments Form Creativity Structure Crafts Memorable Helpful Leap Illogical Leap Of Faith Memorable Moments

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

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

People Ifs Mistake

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

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

Writing Children Art Sex Risk Expecting Saying No Risk It

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

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

Men Art Form Imagination Movie

Author:Francis Ford Coppola

About the Author

Born: April 7, 1939
Known for: Film director
Quotes: 154

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Apocalypse Now Redux : A ScreenplayRelated source material

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