Top 120 Francis Ford Coppola Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I probably have genius. But no talent.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

52. “Art depends on luck and talent.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

53. “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

54. “I never went to a psychologist or psychiatrist in my life. Never. You know, Italians are a little prejudiced against that kind of thing.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

55. “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.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

56. “Whom God wishes to destroy, He first makes successful in show business.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

57. “It was the man’s dream, and his inspiring attempt to make them come true that remain important.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

58. “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

59. “I was raised as a Catholic, but I didn’t like the Catholic Church at all. I thought the nuns were mean.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

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

— Francis Ford Coppola

61. “I became quite successful very young, and it was mainly because I was so enthusiastic and I just worked so hard at it.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

62. “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

63. “A number of images put together a certain way become something quite above and beyond what any of them are individually.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

64. “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

65. “I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

66. “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.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

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

— Francis Ford Coppola

68. “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

69. “Upon that second reading, much of the book fell away in my mind, revealing a story that was a metaphor for American capitalism in the tale of a great king with three sons: the oldest was given his passion and aggressiveness, the second his sweet nature and childlike qualities, and the third his intelligence, cunning, and coldness.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

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

— Francis Ford Coppola

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

— Francis Ford Coppola

72. “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.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

73. “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

74. “The notebook was my anchor through all of it.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

75. “I had a heartbreaking experience when I was 9. I always wanted to be a guard. The most wonderful girl in the world was a guard. When I got polio and then went back to school, they made me a guard. A teacher took away my guard button.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

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

— Francis Ford Coppola

77. “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.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

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

— Francis Ford Coppola

79. “The secret of life is to say yes all the time, because when you’re old, you don’t want to say, ‘I wish I’d done this, I wish I had done that.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

80. “But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?”

— Francis Ford Coppola

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

— Francis Ford Coppola

82. “By working in the morning, I find a sense of peace; it’s isolated peace, but I can definitely be in touch with my feelings, and then I just start.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

83. “I had a number of teachers who hated me. I didn’t do well in school.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

84. “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

85. “I was a pretty shy, lonely kid. I blossomed about age 17, when I went to college.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

86. “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

87. “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.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

88. “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.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

89. “I just finished a film a few days ago, and I came home and said I learned so much today. So if I can come home from working on a little film after doing it for 45 years and say, I learned so much today, that shows something about the cinema. Because the cinema is very young. It’s only 100 years old.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

90. “I don’t go on set with an army of people because the most expensive elements of a movie production are the plane tickets, the hotel rooms, food and gasoline. If you’re willing to discover new colleagues in the place that you are, you can save a ton of money.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

91. “I have more of a vivid imagination than I have talent. I cook up ideas. It’s just a characteristic.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

92. “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.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

93. “I liked to work in a shop down in the basement and invent things and build gadgets.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

94. “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

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

— Francis Ford Coppola

96. “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.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

97. “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

98. “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

99. “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.”

— Francis Ford Coppola

100. “Today’s winemakers still worry about quality.”

— Francis Ford Coppola