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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

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Francis Ford Coppola
Age: 85
Born: 1939
Born: April 7
Actor
Composer
Executive Producer
Film Director
Film Editor
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Winegrower
Writer
Detroit
Michigan
Better
Upward
Way
Mundane
Think
Ambitious
Thinking
Failed
Life
Fortunate
Fail
Succeed
Failing
Overly

More quotes by Francis Ford Coppola

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I'm very proud of my flops, as much as of my successes.
Francis Ford Coppola
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Music is a big factor in helping the illusion of the film come to life. The same way music brings back different periods of our lives.
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I became quite successful very young, and it was mainly because I was so enthusiastic and I just worked so hard at it.
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The things you get fired for when you’re young are the same things that you get lifetime achievement awards for when you’re old.
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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
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So much of the art of film is to do less. To aspire to do less.
Francis Ford Coppola
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Time is the lens through which dreams are captured.
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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.
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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
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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
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My family were symphonic musicians and in the opera. Also, it was my era, the love of radio. We used to listen to the radio at night, close our eyes and see movies far more beautiful than you can photograph.
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I'm no longer dependent on the movie business to make a living. So if I want to make movies as other old guys would play golf, I can.
Francis Ford Coppola
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I believe that filmmaking - as, probably, is everything - is a game you should play with all your cards, and all your dice, and whatever else you've got. So, each time I make a movie, I give it everything I have. I think everyone should, and I think everyone should do everything they do that way.
Francis Ford Coppola
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Today's winemakers still worry about quality.
Francis Ford Coppola
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I was raised as a Catholic, but I didn't like the Catholic Church at all. I thought the nuns were mean.
Francis Ford Coppola
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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
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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
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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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When I was sixteen or seventeen, I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to be a playwright. But everything I wrote, I thought, was weak. And I can remember falling asleep in tears because I had no talent the way I wanted to have.
Francis Ford Coppola
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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