Quotes By Francis Ford Coppola

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

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. But you look at the project and think, 'Gee, there are a lot of good directors who could do that.' I'd like to do something only I can do.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

The stuff that I got in trouble for, the casting for The Godfather or the flag scene in Patton, was the stuff that was remembered, and was considered the good work.

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

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

I wrote the script of Patton. I had this very bizarre opening where he stands up in front of an American flag and gives this speech. Ultimately, I was fired. When the script was done, they hired another writer and that script was forgotten.

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.

I believe that filmmaking - as, probably, is everything - is a game you should play with all your cards, and all your dice, and whatever else you've got. So, each time I make a movie, I give it everything I have. I think everyone should, and I think everyone should do everything they do that way.

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.

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.

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.

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.'

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

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

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

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

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.

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.

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

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