Francis Ford Coppola

Lots of people have criticized my movies, but nobody has ever identified the real problem: I'm a sloppy filmmaker. ”

I became quite successful very young, and it was mainly because I was so enthusiastic and I just worked so hard at it. ”

I remember teachers who really singled me out for their discouragement. ”

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. ”

We support each other in the Coppola family. We love the idea of everyone getting his place in the sun. ”

You ought to love what you're doing because, especially in a movie, over time you really will start to hate it. ”

I was terrible at maths, but I could grasp science, and I used to love to read about the lives of the scientists. I wanted to be a scientist or an inventor. ”

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. ”

I used to love going into local hardware stores, to look at little things they made locally. Nowadays it's harder, though you can still do it in Vietnam. ”

Steven Spielberg is unique. I feel that the kinds of movies he loves are the same kinds of movies that the big mass audience loves. He's very fortunate because he can do the things he naturally likes the best, and he's been very successful. ”