I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians.
Francis Ford Coppola
Art depends on luck and talent.
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.
We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane.
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.
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.
Anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.
My film is not a movie; it's not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam.
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.
I like simplicity; I don't need luxury.
I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing.
I have more of a vivid imagination than I have talent. I cook up ideas. It's just a characteristic.
I was raised as a Catholic, but I didn't like the Catholic Church at all. I thought the nuns were mean.
I was never sloppy with other people's money. Only my own. Because I figure, well, you can be.
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.
It takes no imagination to live within your means.
The most adventurous thing I've done is learn how to fly a helicopter in the Philippines. One night we landed on a beach and slept on it.
'The Godfather' changed my life, for better or worse. It definitely made me have an older man's film career when I was 29.
Usually, the stuff that's your best idea or work is going to be attacked the most.
Everything I do is personal. I have never made a movie that didn't have very strong personal resonance.
As long as I can make lots of money in other businesses, I'll continue to subsidize my own work.
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.
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.
I was always the black sheep of the family and always told that I was dumb, and I had a low IQ and did badly in school.
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.
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!
I've been offered lots of movies. There's always some actor who's doing a project and would like to have me do it. But you look at the project and think, 'Gee, there are a lot of good directors who could do that.' I'd like to do something only I can do.
We do things for good reasons that are bad.
I think a sequel is a waste of money and time. I think movies should illuminate new stories.
People feel the worst film I made was 'Jack.' But to this day, when I get checks from old movies I've made, 'Jack' is one of the biggest ones. No one knows that. If people hate the movie, they hate the movie. I just wanted to work with Robin Williams.
By working in the morning, I find a sense of peace; it's isolated peace, but I can definitely be in touch with my feelings, and then I just start.
My big goal in life was always to figure out how I can make a lot of money so I can go off and make films irrespective of the opinion of the three or four critics who seem to rule the roost.
I had a number of teachers who hated me. I didn't do well in school.
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.
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.
Sound is your friend because sound is much cheaper than picture, but it has equal effect on the audience - in some ways, perhaps more effect because it does it in a very indirect way.
Sequels are not done for the audience or cinema or the filmmakers. It's for the distributor. The film becomes a brand.
If you're a person who says yes most of the time, you'll find yourself in the hotel business and the restaurant business.
I just admire people like Woody Allen, who every year writes an original screenplay. It's astonishing. I always wished that I could do that.
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.
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.
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.
Some critics are stimulating in that they make you realise how you could do better, and those are valued.
To make great movies, there is an element of risk. You have to say, 'Well, I am going to make this film, and it is not really a sure thing.'
The internet in hotels should be free - and I really resent it when they charge you five dollars for a bottle of water beside your bed.
I never went to a psychologist or psychiatrist in my life. Never. You know, Italians are a little prejudiced against that kind of thing.
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.
The whole reason one wants to do lower budget films is because the lower the budget, the bigger the ideas, the bigger the themes, the more interesting the art.
In a sense, I think a movie is really a little like a question and when you make it, that's when you get the answer.
You ought to love what you're doing because, especially in a movie, over time you really will start to hate it.
