The 70 best quotes by Francis Ford Coppola
Famous quotes and thoughts from one of the most successful film directors.
Francis Ford Coppola (Detroit, 1939) is one of the most recognized filmmakers of today. Hollywood star, behind the scenes he has had spectacular success, accumulating 5 Oscar awards.
Writer and director of The Godfather and The Godfather II, he has also won awards at festivals such as Cannes for films like The Conversation and Apocalypse Now.
- We recommend you to read: "60 movie quotes that marked the history of cinema".
Francis Ford Coppola's Famous Phrases
For many critics and experts in the seventh art, Francis Ford Coppola is one of the most incredible filmmakers of the twentieth century.
In today's article we are going to know the best phrases of Francis Ford Coppolaand his reflections not only about cinema but also about life in general.
- Recommended article: "The 25 best quotes by Robert De Niro".
1. An essential element of any art is risk. If you don't take risks, how are you going to make something really beautiful that hasn't been seen before?
Art is based on just that.
2. I think film and magic have always been closely associated. The first people who made movies were magicians.
A way to trap and illusionize the viewer.
3. My talent is that I just try to try and try and try again and little by little it's about something.
The visions become reality after a lot of effort.
4. You don't have to specialize, do everything you love and then at some point the future will come together for you in some way.
Passion is the necessary condition for things to work out.
5. I was the kind of kid who had some talents or skills, but never got out of school.
It was only later that his talent could be fully developed.
6. There is nothing creative about surviving within your means.
The limits are a little farther away.
7. Anything you build on a grand scale or with intense passion invites chaos.
Creative torrent goes hand in hand with lack of balance.
8. I believe it is better to be overly ambitious and fail than to be unambitious and succeed in a mundane way. I've been very fortunate - I've failed upwards in my life!
Great reflection on the winning mentality.
9. One thing I am sure of is the real pleasure of life: you don't know, it's not having your own plane, it's not having a mansion, the pleasure is learning something.
The ultimate gain in life is constant learning, according to Ford Coppola.
10. You have to be really brave about your instincts and your ideas. Otherwise, it will simply fold and things that could have been memorable will be lost.
Another phrase about perseverance in life.
11. Drinking wine is just a part of life, like eating food.
To each person's free interpretation.
12. Always make your work personal. And, you never have to lie... There is something we know is connected to beauty and truth. There is something ancient. We know that art is about beauty and, therefore, it has to do with truth.
If you feel it as yours, it will be of a higher quality.
13. When you make a film it's like asking yourself a question. When it's over, you know the answer. Ultimately, with all filmmaking, we're just trying to learn about ourselves. I've always taken the opportunity to make a film to learn more about myself, which I'm still doing.
A great insight into the seventh art and its characteristics.
14. If the film works, no one notices the mistakes.... If the film doesn't work, the only thing people notice are mistakes.
An essential truth about things well done.
15. While knowledge of structure is useful, real creativity comes from leaps of faith in which you leap into something illogical. But those leaps form the memorable moments in movies and plays.
A curious definition of creativity.
16. Sound is your friend because sound is much cheaper than image, but it has the same effect on the audience; in some ways, perhaps it has more effect because it does so in a very indirect way.
About one of the aspects that usually go unnoticed... but are essential in a good film.
17. Wine is much more than a drink. It is a romance, a story, a drama, all those things that are basically a spectacle.
A praise to this appreciated alcoholic beverage.
18. Anyone who has done film and knows film has a lifelong love affair with the experience. You never stop learning about film.
It's a constant learning, according to Ford Coppola.
19. I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing.
There's always a kind of imposter syndrome lurking around.
20. Don't work on anything less than an epic level.
If it's not worth much, don't even try.
21. Generally, things that are your best idea or work will be attacked to the maximum.
Precisely because they stand out, they will raise blisters.
22. The reason you want to make low-budget films is because the lower the budget, the bigger the ideas, the bigger the themes, the more interesting the art.
A lot of creative ideas are born out of a lack of budget.
23. Movies are the art form closest to man's imagination.
The seventh art is one of the most complete and multidimensional.
24. Time is the lens through which dreams are captured.
One of those phrases about time that leave us thinking for hours.
So give yourself a chance to put together the 80, 90 pages of a draft and then read it really well in a nice little ceremony, where you feel comfortable, and read it and take good notes about it, what you like, what touched you, what moved you, what's a possible way, and then the rewrite begins.
About the process of elaborating a film script.
26. I like simplicity; I don't need luxury.
Austerity is the best traveling companion.
27. You are in a profession where absolutely everyone is telling you their opinion, which is different. That's one of the reasons why George Lucas never directed again.
Some geniuses end up unhinged after criticism.
28. You don't need imagination to live within your means.
Another sentence that advocates austerity and common sense.
29. A director is the ringmaster of a circus that is inventing itself.
A great phrase by Francis Ford Coppola to understand the magic of cinema.
30. There can be no art without risk. It's like saying no to sex, and then expecting children.
A good metaphor to explain the courage of the artist.
31. Everyone knows the phenomenon of trying to hold your breath underwater: how at first it's fine and you can handle it, and then it gets closer and closer to the moment when you must breathe, how urgent the need and hunger to breathe is. And then the panic starts when you begin to think you won't be able to breathe, and finally, when you take a breath and the anxiety subsides... that's what it's like to be a vampire and need blood.
Metaphor to apply to extreme situations in life.
32. Death is what makes life an event.
Live, and then disappear.
33. Whoever God wishes to destroy, first succeeds in show business.
Ford Coppola was probably referring to the disorderly life of most artists.
34. The photographer and the director are where reality and fantasy meet.
Two heavyweights in the making of any film.
35. I have more of a vivid imagination than talent. I cook up ideas. It's just a characteristic.
A creative must possess this way of thinking.
36. The professional world was much more unpleasant than I thought. I always wished I could recapture the enthusiasm I had when I was doing shows in college.
The plethora of interests and backstabbing in the workplace is something Ford Coppola also suffered from.
37. You should love what you're doing because, especially in a movie, eventually you'll really start to hate it.
Funny thought.
By the end of the filming process you may have a broader and more accurate knowledge of existence.
39. Several images together in a certain way become something far above and beyond what any one of them is individually.
The sum of the parts is more than the parts separately.
40. Some criticisms are stimulating because they make you realize how you can improve, and those are valued.
Humility first and foremost.
41. I think cinematography, as, probably, everything is, is a game that you have to play with all your cards, all your dice and everything you have. So, every time I make a film, I give it everything I have. I think everyone should do it, and I think everyone should do everything they do that way.
True passion for the craft of filmmaking.
42. The most adventurous thing I've ever done is learning to fly a helicopter in the Philippines. One night we landed on a beach and slept on it.
One of his most famous adventures.
43. We were raised in an Italian-American home, although we did not speak Italian at home. We were very proud to be Italian, and we had Italian music, ate Italian food.
About his early childhood and his Italian roots.
44. I liked to work in a store in the basement and invent things and make gadgets.
Another famous quote from Francis Ford Coppola reviewing his tastes during the early stages of his life.
45. The things you get fired for when you're young are the same things you get lifetime achievement awards for when you're old.
Perhaps certain attributes are valued very differently depending on your age.
46. If you are a person who says yes most of the time, you will be in the hotel business and the restaurant business.
A statement that is quite difficult to interpret.
47. Listen, if there's one sure rule I've learned in this business, it's that I don't know anything about human nature.
It's all a big mystery.
48. It was man's dreams and his inspiring attempt to make them come true that remain important.
Pursuing goals is essential to the development of mankind.
49. I have been offered many films. There is always some actor who is doing a project who proposes something to you. 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 that only I can do.
Looking for very personal work.
50. The sequences are not made for the audience, the cinema or the filmmakers. It's for the distributor. The film becomes a brand.
A detail that may not be noticed by the general public.
51. Most Italians who came to this country are very patriotic. There was the exciting possibility that if you worked really hard and loved something, you could succeed.
The American dream as seen by Italian emigrants.
52. When I was about 9 years old, I had polio and people were very scared for their children, so I used to be isolated. I was paralyzed for a while, so I watched television.
That's where his interest in the seventh art was forged.
53. I became quite successful very young, and it was mainly because I was very enthusiastic and worked very hard at it.
The recipe for success. There is no other possible way.
54. My family were symphony and opera musicians. Besides, it was my time, the love of radio. We used to listen to the radio at night, close our eyes and watch movies much more beautiful than you can photograph.
About one of the most beautiful habits of his family.
55. Stay innocent. I am 69 years old and I am still innocent.
Naivety, divine treasure.
56. Art depends on luck and talent.
Several ingredients that are absolutely necessary.
57. We had access to too much equipment, too much money, and little by little we went crazy.
This happens when productions have a budget that is too exorbitant.
58. I grew up Catholic, but I didn't like the Catholic Church at all. I thought the nuns were bad.
About your relationship with the Church.
59. I had a number of very strong personalities in my family. My father was a concert flautist, the flute soloist for Toscanini.
Memories about his childhood.
60. I remember at The Conversation they brought me all these coats and they said, do you want it to look like a detective, Humphrey Bogart, do you want it to look like a blah, blah, blah? I didn't know, and I said the theme was "privacy" and I picked the plastic coat you could see. So knowing the topic helps you make a decision when you're not sure which way to go.
A way to move forward faster.
61. The essence of filmmaking is editing. It is the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, put together in a kind of alchemy.
Without cuts and retouching we would not enjoy an excellent film.
62. Music is an important factor in helping the illusion of the film come alive. In the same way that music brings different periods of our lives to life.
Francis Ford Coppola makes clear the need for great soundtracks.
63. If you can't experiment anymore for fear of being considered self-indulgent or pretentious or whatever, everyone will stick to the rules, there will be no additional ideas.
Let your imagination flow and put unfounded criticism out of your mind.
64. I have a lot to learn from my daughter Sofia. Her minimalism exposes my limitations: I am too instinctive and operatic, I put too much Heart into my work, I get lost sometimes in strange things, it's my Italian heritage.
Your daughter changed your perception all at once.
65. Most directors have a masterpiece for which they are known. Kurosawa has at least eight or nine.
A quote from Ford Coppola showing his admiration for that director.
66. I was terrible at math, but I could grasp science, and I used to read about the lives of scientists. I wanted to be a scientist or an inventor.
Another reflection on his childhood and his dreams.
67. I wanted to go back to being a film student, as a 60-year-old man. To go somewhere alone and see what you can cook, with non-existent budgets. I didn't want to be surrounded by comforts and colleagues, which you have when you're a big director. I wanted to write personal work.
His career was going in directions he didn't want to accept.
68. In America, even critics, which is a shame, tend to classify things by genre. They have a hard time when genres get mixed up. They want to categorize things. That's why I love Wes Anderson and the Coen brothers' movies, because you don't know what you're going to get, and very often you get something you don't expect and that's exactly what a genre is not supposed to do.
Outside of any label there is art and artistic innovation.
69. I no longer depend on the film business to make a living. So, if I want to make movies as other older guys play golf, I can.
Financial freedom and its honeys.
70. That's part of the requirement for me to be an artist, is that you're trying to share your personal existence with others and trying to illuminate modern life, trying to understand life.
On the filmmaker's path is forged this kind of constant learning about human existence from many prisms.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)