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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
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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
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
I remember growing up with television, from the time it was just a test pattern, with maybe a little bit of programming once in a while.
Francis Ford Coppola
I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing.
Francis Ford Coppola
The stuff that I got in trouble for, the casting for The Godfather or the flag scene in Patton, was the stuff that was remembered, and was considered the good work.
Francis Ford Coppola
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
I had an older brother who was very interested in literature, so I had an early exposure to literature, and and theater. My father sometimes would work in musical comedies.
Francis Ford Coppola
I wrote the script of Patton. I had this very bizarre opening where he stands up in front of an American flag and gives this speech. Ultimately, I was fired. When the script was done, they hired another writer and that script was forgotten.
Francis Ford Coppola
Roger Corman exploited all of the young people who worked for him, but he really gave you responsibility and opportunity. So it was kind of a fair deal.
Francis Ford Coppola
I was the kind of kid that had some talents or ability, but it never came out in school.
Francis Ford Coppola
When I was about 9, I had polio, and people were very frightened for their children, so you tended to be isolated. I was paralyzed for a while, so I watched television.
Francis Ford Coppola
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
When I do a novel, I don't really use the script, I use the book; when I did Apocalypse Now, I used Heart of Darkness. Novels usually have so much rich material.
Francis Ford Coppola
In kindergarten that used to be my job, to tell them fairytales. I liked Hans Christian Andersen, and the Grimm fairy tales, all the classic fairy tales.
Francis Ford Coppola
You're in a profession in which absolutely everybody is telling you their opinion, which is different. That's one of the reasons George Lucas never directed again.
Francis Ford Coppola
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.
Francis Ford Coppola
I liked to work in a shop down in the basement and invent things and build gadgets.
Francis Ford Coppola
Art depends on luck and talent.
Francis Ford Coppola
It's ironic that at age 32, at probably the greatest moment of my career, with The Godfather having such an enormous success, I wasn't even aware of it, because I was somewhere else under the deadline again.
Francis Ford Coppola
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
Listen, if there's one sure-fire rule that I have learned in this business, it's that I don't know anything about human nature.
Francis Ford Coppola
Usually, the stuff that's your best idea or work is going to be attacked the most.
Francis Ford Coppola
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.
Francis Ford Coppola
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
I always found the film world unpleasant. It's all about the schedule, and never really flew for me.
Francis Ford Coppola
A number of images put together a certain way become something quite above and beyond what any of them are individually.
Francis Ford Coppola
We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane.
Francis Ford Coppola
I remember teachers who really singled me out for their discouragement.
Francis Ford Coppola
I had a number of teachers who hated me. I didn't do well in school.
Francis Ford Coppola
I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians.
Francis Ford Coppola
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
I had a number of very strong personalities in my family. My father was a concert flutist, the solo flute for Toscanini.
Francis Ford Coppola
Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.
Francis Ford Coppola
I associate my motion picture career more with being unhappy and scared, or being under the gun, than with anything pleasant.
Francis Ford Coppola
George Lucas doesn't have the most physical stamina. He was so unhappy making Star Wars that he just vowed he'd never do it again.
Francis Ford Coppola
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
The essence of cinema is editing. It's 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.
Francis Ford Coppola
I thought I wanted to be a playwright because I was interested in stories and telling stories.
Francis Ford Coppola
My film is not a movie; it's not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam.
Francis Ford Coppola
I had been a kid that moved so much, I didn't have a lot of friends. Theater really represented camaraderie.
Francis Ford Coppola
You ought to love what you're doing because, especially in a movie, over time you really will start to hate it.
Francis Ford Coppola
Ten Days That Shook The World, by Eisenstein, I went to see it, and I was so impressed with this film, so impressed with what cinema could do.
Francis Ford Coppola
'Godfather' was very classical - the way it was shot, the style - the whole driving force of it was more classical, almost Shakespearean.
Francis Ford Coppola
'The Godfather' changed my life, for better or worse. It definitely made me have an older man's film career when I was 29.
Francis Ford Coppola
All of a sudden, there are great Japanese films, or great Italian films, or great Australian films. It's usually because there are a number of people that cross-pollinated each other.
Francis Ford Coppola
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
As long as I can make lots of money in other businesses, I'll continue to subsidize my own work.
Francis Ford Coppola
Being a former theater student, of course, there is a part of me that is fascinated with stage crafts and what you can do with illusions and working within the confines of the studio.
Francis Ford Coppola