Author Profile
Francis Ford Coppola
1939 • American • Director
65
Total Quotes
Collected Meditations
Showing 65 quotesWhen 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
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
I thought I wanted to be a playwright because I was interested in stories and telling stories.— 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.— 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
I realized I probably wouldn't make another film that cuts through commercial and creative things like 'Godfather' or 'Apocalypse.'— Francis Ford Coppola
Everything I do is personal. I have never made a movie that didn't have very strong personal resonance.— 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
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
'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 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
I liked to work in a shop down in the basement and invent things and build gadgets.— 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
I associate my motion picture career more with being unhappy and scared, or being under the gun, than with anything pleasant.— Francis Ford Coppola