I have always credited the writer of the original material above the title: Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Bram Stoker's Dracula, or John Grisham's The Rainmaker. I felt that I didn't have the right to Francis Coppola's anything unless I had written the story and the screenplay.

Francis Ford Coppola

Categorized in : Directors Stories Titles

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don't take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn't been seen before?

Francis Ford Coppola

risk beautiful art

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

Francis Ford Coppola

fog movie thinking

My talent is that I just try and try and try and try again and little by little it comes to something.

Francis Ford Coppola

talent littles trying

Always make your work be personal. And, you never have to lie... There is something we know that's connected with beauty and truth. There is something ancient. We know that art is about beauty, and therefore it has to be about truth.

Francis Ford Coppola

ancient lying art

There's nothing creative about living within your means.

Francis Ford Coppola

movie inspiring mean

Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.

Francis Ford Coppola

chaos intense passion

You don't have to specialize - do everything that you love and then, at some time, the future will come together for you in some form.

Francis Ford Coppola

together motivational past

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.

Francis Ford Coppola

courage memorable ideas

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

sound doe way

One thing that I'm sure of is the real pleasure of life - it's not being known, it's not having your own jet plane, it's not having a mansion the pleasure is to learn something

Francis Ford Coppola

jet-planes pleasure real

When you make a film it is like asking yourself a question. When it is finished, you know the answer. Ultimately with all of cinema, we are just trying to learn about ourselves. I have always used the opportunity to make a film to learn more about myself, which I am still doing.

Francis Ford Coppola

cinema opportunity trying

Drinking wine is just a part of life, like eating food.

Francis Ford Coppola

wine eating drinking

I think it's better to be overly ambitious and fail than to be underambitious and succeed in a mundane way. I have been very fortunate. I failed upward in my life!

Francis Ford Coppola

ambitious way thinking

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

creativity real memorable

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

Francis Ford Coppola

lonely college kids

I was the kind of kid that had some talents or ability, but it never came out in school.

Francis Ford Coppola

talent kids school

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

Francis Ford Coppola

ifs mistake people

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

Francis Ford Coppola

creative art thinking

Work on nothing less than epic scale

Francis Ford Coppola

scales epic

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

Francis Ford Coppola

stuff ideas