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Film Quotes by Francis Ford Coppola

52 Film quotes by Francis Ford Coppola

All Film quotes Francis Ford Coppola’s page

Francis Ford Coppola describes cinema as a craft built on editing and personal vision. He says he left commercial movies to fund his own projects, even making a horror film in nine days with $40,000. He also warns that box‑office reports often hide the true story.

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The essence of cinema is editing.

Francis Ford Coppola

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So much of the art of film is to do less. To aspire to do less.

Francis Ford Coppola

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

Francis Ford Coppola

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The very earliest people who made film were magicians.

Francis Ford Coppola

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My film is not a movie; it's not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam.

Francis Ford Coppola

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Sequels are not done for the audience or cinema or the filmmakers. It's for the distributor. The film becomes a brand.

Francis Ford Coppola

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

Francis Ford Coppola

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In a sense, I think a movie is really a little like a question and when you make it, that's when you…

Francis Ford Coppola

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'The Godfather' changed my life, for better or worse. It definitely made me have an older man's film career when I was 29.

Francis Ford Coppola

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

Francis Ford Coppola

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The time a movie is made is unique, not only from the talent that is available but if the public was ready…

Francis Ford Coppola

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Everything I do is personal. I have never made a movie that didn't have very strong personal resonance.

Francis Ford Coppola

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

Francis Ford Coppola

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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

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The whole reason one wants to do lower budget films is because the lower the budget, the bigger the ideas, the bigger…

Francis Ford Coppola

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Steven Spielberg is unique. I feel that the kinds of movies he loves are the same kinds of movies that the big…

Francis Ford Coppola

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'Godfather' was very classical - the way it was shot, the style - the whole driving force of it was more classical,…

Francis Ford Coppola

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The essence of cinema is editing. It's the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images…

Francis Ford Coppola

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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…

Francis Ford Coppola

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I just admire people like Woody Allen, who every year writes an original screenplay. It's astonishing. I always wished that I could…

Francis Ford Coppola

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All of a sudden, there are great Japanese films, or great Italian films, or great Australian films. It's usually because there are…

Francis Ford Coppola

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My film isn't about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It's what it was really like. It was crazy. And the way we made…

Francis Ford Coppola

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I gladly, I voluntarily gave up the kind of commercial film career I had going as soon as I had enough money…

Francis Ford Coppola

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In America, even the critics - which is a pity - tend to genre-ize things. They have a hard time when genres…

Francis Ford Coppola

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I wanted to be a film student again, as a man in my 60s. To go someplace alone and see what you…

Francis Ford Coppola

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I believe that filmmaking - as, probably, is everything - is a game you should play with all your cards, and all…

Francis Ford Coppola

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Without a doubt, I was born to want to make cinema, but the kind of cinema I want to make is not…

Francis Ford Coppola

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When you make a film it is like asking yourself a question. When it is finished, you know the answer. Ultimately with…

Francis Ford Coppola

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I just finished a film a few days ago, and I came home and said I learned so much today. So if…

Francis Ford Coppola

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

Francis Ford Coppola

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

Francis Ford Coppola

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

Francis Ford Coppola

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

Francis Ford Coppola

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

Francis Ford Coppola

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

Francis Ford Coppola

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Ten Days That Shook The World, by Eisenstein, I went to see it, and I was so impressed with this film, so…

Francis Ford Coppola

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

Francis Ford Coppola

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To make great movies, there is an element of risk. You have to say, 'Well, I am going to make this film,…

Francis Ford Coppola

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Music is a big factor in helping the illusion of the film come to life. The same way music brings back different…

Francis Ford Coppola

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I don't go on set with an army of people because the most expensive elements of a movie production are the plane…

Francis Ford Coppola

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I wrote the script of Patton. I had this very bizarre opening where he stands up in front of an American flag and gives…

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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…

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

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

Collaboration is like the sex of creativity.

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…

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Death is what makes life an event.

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…

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…

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…

Francis Ford Coppola

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

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…

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…

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

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

Francis Ford Coppola