Francis Ford Coppola quotes

Born
April 7, 1939, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

Occupation
Director.

Francis Ford Coppola is an American director, producer and screenwriter.

Movies
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
The Godfather Part III (1990)
Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)

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

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

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

Art depends on luck and talent.
– 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

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

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

We support each other in the Coppola family. We love the idea of everyone getting his place in the sun.
– 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 wanted to write and direct movies and not be forced to adapt them from a bestselling book.
– Francis Ford Coppola

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

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

Most Italians who came to this country are very patriotic. There was this exciting possibility that if you worked real hard, and you loved something, you could become successful.
– Francis Ford Coppola

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

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

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

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

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

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.
– Francis Ford Coppola

I remember teachers who really singled me out for their discouragement.
– 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 I have to be remembered for something, I want it remembered that I really liked children and was a good camp counselor.
– 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 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 probably have genius. But no talent.
– Francis Ford Coppola