The 90 best phrases of Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola is known to be one of the most respected and acclaimed film directors in the seventh art, reaching 5 Oscars. We can recognize him through his classics like The Godfather or Apocalypse Now. A curiosity is that Ford is his middle name and was baptized with the same as a way of thanking his father to Henry Ford, founder of the iconic car brand of the same name. As a tribute, we have selected the most powerful reflections of him.

• We recommend you read: "The 75 best phrases of Stanley Kubrick"

Famous quotes from Francis Ford Coppola

To commemorate his career, we bring you a compilation of Francis Ford Coppola's most exciting quotes from his life and his films.

1. Have you ever thought about true freedoms? To be free from the opinion of others? Even from one's own opinion

A phrase that invites us to turn a deaf ear to the criticism of others and self-sabotage.

2. Cinema attracted me to its magical component, I wanted to create in that world.

His attraction to the cinema.

3. Generally, the things that are your best idea or work will be attacked the most.

We are never truly free from negative reviews.

4. They needed someone to write the script for The Great Gatsby very quickly for the movie they were making. I took this job so I will make sure I have some money to support my family.

Talking about his participation in The Great Gatsby.

5. The reason you want to make low-budget movies is because the lower the budget, the bigger the ideas, the bigger the subjects, the more interesting the art.

The less pressure there is, the more creative freedom they have.

6. I had a number of very strong personalities in my family. My father was a concert flutist, Toscanini's flute solo.

A very diverse family.

7. The only thing that really scares me is that a pretty girl in a wedding dress looks at me and finds me disgusting.

His insecurity about his appearance is reflected in this sentence.

8. An essential element of any art is risk.

Risk is part of the art.

9. Art without risk is like not making love and trying to have children.

Another phrase that shows us the importance of risk in art.

10. Movies are the art form closest to man's imagination.

It is where an idea can come to life.

11. It is ironic that at 32 years old, in probably the best moment of my career, with the godfather who has such an enormous success, that he was not even aware of it, because he was somewhere else under the new term.

Sharing one of your most satisfying memories.

12. I think that cinema and magic have always been closely associated. The first people to make movies were magicians.

For Coppola, cinema is magical.

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

A sad memory of his childhood.

14. If you don't risk it, how can you make something really beautiful that hasn't been seen before?

The director is not afraid to take risks in his life.

15. That is part of the requirement for me to be an artist, is that you are trying to share your personal existence with others and trying to illuminate modern life, trying to understand life.

Art needs to be shared.

16. Time is the lens through which dreams are captured.

Reflections about time.

17. I have never been careless with other people's money. Only mine. Because I imagine, well, it can be.

A somewhat peculiar but functional sense of responsibility for him.

18. Make personal films because that is the miracle of art, and art has to be at risk, which is what makes it beautiful.

Each film must have a special meaning for its director.

19. If history has taught us anything, it is that anyone can be killed.

One of the iconic phrases of the Godfather.

20. I had no problem risking my own money and would do it today too. It's better than asking someone who doesn't even respect you for money.

You always have to avoid borrowing money, as it is a very heavy debt to carry.

21. I no longer depend on the movie business for a living.

A point has come where you can relax.

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

It never hurts to try something over and over until you are successful.

23. So give yourself the opportunity to put together the 80, 90 pages of a draft and then read it very well in a nice little ceremony, where you sit comfortable, and read it and take good notes about it, what you like, what you played, what moved it, what is a possible way, and then the rewriting.

Motivating people to make movies and even to write.

24. As long as I can make a lot of money in other businesses, I will continue to subsidize my own work.

Investing in other things is never a bad idea.

25. When I went to graduate school, I decided that I was going to make a film as my thesis. That's what I was famous for because I had my thesis film be a movie, which was 'You're a great boy'.

Speaking of his thesis, one of his most beloved films.

26. 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.

Great advice from the film director.

27. Welcome to my abode. Enter freely, of your own free will, and leave some of the happiness it brings.

Always surround yourself with people who bring happiness to your life.

28. The future of cinema is in writing.

A visionary to include writing in movies.

29. I am not following you, I am looking for you. There is a big difference.

Another iconic line from his movies.

30. I prefer to earn it myself and then invest it in my own work.

Talking about investing your own money.

31. When I was 9, I had polio, and people were very scared for their children, so they tended to isolate themselves. I was paralyzed for a while, so I watched television.

A not so pleasant childhood experience.

32. I don't think there are words to describe all that horror means to those who don't know what it is.

Have you lived the true terror?

33. You are in a profession in which absolutely everyone is telling you their opinion of him, which is different. That's one of the reasons George Lucas never directed again.

Negative reviews can destroy love for what you are passionate about doing.

34. We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went crazy.

Your impression of your first blockbuster.

35. Watch a lot of movies, because you learn a lot; and study, because learning is one of the great pleasures of life that does not cause problems such as eating, which makes you fat, or drinking, which makes you sick.

Everything in life gives us an apprenticeship, even movies.

36. In my town when you attack a man, it is better to finish him off.

An interesting motto from one of his movies.

37. The best way to foresee the future is to invent it.

You create your own future.

38. Today I do not see that risk in the menu of large studios, and as a creator you must bet on personal, unique works.

Talking about the lack of risk in the movies.

39. So if I want to make movies since other older kids play golf, I can.

The director is in a stage of making movies just for the pleasure of making them.

40. I remember growing up with television, from when it was just a test model, with maybe a little programming every now and then.

Television was always a significant part of her life.

41. I was the type of kid who had some talents or abilities, but never went out in school.

An example that innate talents do not always emerge in school.

42. The horror. Horror has a face.

Horror has the face that we put on it.

43. If we cannot experience like the pioneers of cinema, how are we going to make cinema evolve, how are our grandchildren's films going to be?

A critique of the future of cinema.

44. There is nothing creative about surviving within your means.

Coppola invites us to get out of our comfort zone.

45. I was not always successful with critics and the public, although I believe in being patient, in betting on your work.

You can't just give up on bad reviews, especially if you believe in your work.

46. In America, even critics, which is a shame, tend to sort things by gender.

A big mistake according to the director because it does not allow to appreciate the film in its entirety.

47. Art depends on luck and talent.

Elements that are part of success.

48. Everything you build on a grand scale or with intense passion invites chaos.

An interesting phrase to ponder.

49. You have to make friends with horror. Horror and moral terror must be friends, if they are not they become terrible enemies, real enemies.

We must overcome our fears.

50. I like the simplicity; I don't need luxury.

A sample of the humility of the director.

51. I regret that some of today's great villains choose it as their favorite movie because of the cold and pragmatic attitude of its protagonists.

Talking about The Godfather.

52. I think it is better to be overly ambitious and fail than to be unambitious and succeed in a worldly way. I have been very lucky. I failed upward in my life!

If you fail, let it be chasing the top.

53. One thing I am sure of is the true pleasure of life: you don't know, it is not having your own plane, it is not having a mansion, the pleasure is learning something.

Reference to the fact that the material does not bring true satisfaction.

54. People feel like the worst movie I ever made was 'Jack'. But to this day, when it gets to the controls for the old movies I've made, 'Jack' is one of the greatest. Nobody knows. If people hate the movie, they hate the movie. I just wanted to work with Robin Williams.

Opinion on the movie by him Jack.

55. I have crossed oceans of time to find you.

A beautiful phrase of love.

56. The United States and the Mafia have their hands stained with blood in case it was necessary to protect their strength and their interests.

A harsh criticism of organized crime.

57. You must love what you are doing because, especially in a movie, eventually you will really start to hate it.

It's very easy to get bored with something if you don't love doing it.

58. You have to be really brave about your instincts and your ideas. Otherwise it will just fold and things that could have been memorable will be lost.

Being brave brings its rewards.

59. Listen, if there's one surefire rule I've learned in this business, it's that I don't know anything about human nature.

Humans have the potential to surprise us, in a good way and a bad way.

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

A lover of wines.

61. Charging someone with murder at this location is like speeding tickets at the Indianapolis race.

Another iconic quote from one of his movies.

62. Anyone who has made movies and knows about movies has a lifelong love story with the experience. He never stops learning about this trade.

Here, the director shows us the wealth that comes from learning something new every day.

63. Always make your work personal. And you never have to lie ...

Give more than one hundred percent in what you do.

64. We were raised in an Italian-American family, even though they don't speak Italian at home.

the traditions that are maintained in spite of everything.

65. I am puzzled. I doubt, I fear, I think strange things, and I myself do not dare to confess to my own soul.

Doubt eats away at us inside.

66. That's why I love Wes Anderson and the Coen Brothers movies, because you don't know what you're going to do. get, and very often you get something you don't expect and that is exactly what a gender.

Talking about his favorite way of making movies.

67. There is something that we know is connected to beauty and truth. There is something ancient.

Beauty should not be a mask to hide things.

68. We were very proud to be Italian, and he had Italian music, he ate Italian food.

The pride of the family for its roots.

69. When you make a movie it's like asking yourself a question. When it's over, you know the answer.

Personal reflections on the process of filmmaking.

70. The essence of cinema is editing.

The real place where magic happens.

71. The difference between a lawyer and a prostitute is that the lawyer will not stop fucking you even if he is dead.

A strong view on lawyers.

72. We know that art is about beauty and therefore has to do with truth.

Beauty in art.

73. I had an older brother who was very interested in literature, so I had an early exposure to literature, and the and the theater. My father would sometimes work in musical comedies.

His first influences on art.

74. It doesn't take imagination to live within your means.

If you can dream it, you can make it come true.

75. It is the combination of what can be extraordinary images of people during emotional moments, or images in a general sense, grouped in a kind of alchemy.

Showing what for him is part of the process of making a movie.

76. Ultimately, with all the cinema, we are just trying to learn about ourselves.

Cinema has something cathartic about it.

77. Wine is much more than a drink. It's a romance, a story, a drama, all those things that are basically a show.

Another phrase that shows us his passion for wine.

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

What works and what does not work in public view.

79. Internet access in hotels should be free and it really annoys me when they charge you five dollars for a bottle of water next to your bed.

Speaking of how greedy they are in hotels.

80. This is not a movie about the Vietnam War, this is Vietnam.

Reference to Apocalypse Now.

81. I've always taken the opportunity to make a movie to learn more about myself, which I'm still doing.

In the process of making movies, the director has found his place in the world.

82. Death is what makes life an event.

Only on the deathbed is life truly appreciated.

83. Although knowledge of the structure is helpful, real creativity comes from leaps of faith in which you jump to something illogical. But those jumps make up the memorable moments in movies and plays.

Sometimes we need to take that leap of faith.

84. I wanted to be a film student again, like a 60-year-old man. Go somewhere alone and see what you can cook, on non-existent budgets.

Speaking of wanting to experience that spontaneous life of youth again.

85. I did not want to be surrounded by comforts and colleagues, which you have when you are a great director. I wanted to write personal works.

Another phrase that reminds us of the director's preference for simplicity.

86. Sound is your friend because sound is much cheaper than image, but it has the same effect on the audience; in a way, maybe it has more of an effect because it does it in a very indirect way.

Sound is everything in movies.

87. He was terrible at math, but he could grasp science, and he used to read about the lives of scientists. I wanted to be a scientist or an inventor.

We are not all good at everything, but in a particular area.

88. I don't think there is any artist of value who does not doubt what they are doing.

Doubt always exists, what matters is overcoming it.

89. Frank Capra was a prop man, I think. John Ford was a prop man. It was a bit of a thing, father and son, and it kind of worked its way up.

His vision of great men.

90. Don't work on anything other than an epic level.

Another phrase that reminds us to work on what we love to do.