Francis Ford Coppola

“Everything I do is personal. I have never made a movie that was not personal.”

“You can't make a movie for everybody. You can't go into it trying to please everybody.”

“A number of images put together a certain way become something quite above and beyond what any of them are individually.”

“If you can find a way to do something for a living that you love, you'll be a happy person.”

“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?”

“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.”

“The things that I have done that are most in the public eye are the things that are most risky.”

“Art depends on luck and talent.”

“I became a director because I wanted to be a writer.”

“We were exhilarated by the new freedom of the screen. We were making films that were personal, because we had to.”

“I believe that the great filmmakers of the future will be the poets.”

“A film is a reflection of the director's personality. That's why I think it's important to be a good person.”

“I have a theory that the moment you're on a big budget, you're not a filmmaker anymore. You're a general.”

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

“My film is not about Vietnam, it is Vietnam.”

“You have to be a little crazy to do what I do.”

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

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