Quotes by Francis Ford Coppola

“We teach our boys to firebomb villages, but we won't let them write fuck on the side of their planes because it's obscene.”

“We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can't steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that's how you will find your...”

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

“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. Th...”

“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...”

“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. ...”

“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.”

“I like to work in the morning. I like to sometimes go to a place where I'm all alone where I'm not going to get a phone call early that hurts my feelings, because once my feelings are hurt, I'm dea...”

“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.”

“I had a number of very strong personalities in my family. My father was a concert flutist, the solo flute for Toscanini.”

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

“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 eve...”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“People feel the worst film I made was 'Jack.' But to this day, when I get checks from old movies I've made, 'Jack' is one of the biggest ones. No one knows that. If people hate the movie, they hate...”

“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.”

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

“It takes no imagination to live within your means.”