Top 47 Frank Capra Quotes
#1. I love Frank Capra. He believed in the goodness of people and one man's ability to fight and often triumph.
Tom Shadyac
#2. My heroes are guys like Frank Capra and Elia Kazan and Coen brothers and Terry Gilliam, more so than a lot of bass players at this point in my life. So I've always been an old-film nut and have very much enjoyed doing videos over the years.
Les Claypool
#3. There's an excellent movie we have on TCM called 'It Happened on Fifth Avenue,' which was originally going to be directed by Frank Capra ... but just before he was going to start working on it, he came across this story called 'The Greatest Gift.' And that turned into 'It's a Wonderful Life.'
Robert Osborne
#4. One does not have to make Frank Capra movies to like people.
Stanley Kubrick
#5. I went to Dave Eggers with this idea of doing a movie about a guy going through some sort of Frank Capra-esque journey.
John Krasinski
#6. One of the things I've discovered at my age is I must have enchantment. And that was not clear to me in my earlier years. When I look at my favorite films, the Frank Capra - even Scorsese, even 'Goodfellas,' what makes that movie so remarkable is there's enchantment in their world.
David O. Russell
#7. Think of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges. They used the same actors over and over again.
Matthew Modine
#8. I love Westerns. I really love John Wayne. Frank Capra, any of his movies I love.
Rob Zombie
#9. 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
#10. I still think of Columbia as one Rita Hayworth movie a year, or maybe one a year directed by Frank Capra in the '30s. To see how many really outstanding movies Columbia made, and all together, is kind of eye-opening.
Robert Osborne
#11. John Lee Hancock is someone that I had admired from afar. I think he is a wonderful director ... in the tradition I would say both of Clint Eastwood and Frank Capra.
Alison Owen
#12. Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream, it takes over as the number one hormone; it bosses the enzymes; directs the pineal gland; plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to film is more film.
Frank Capra
#14. Most of ideologies are not based on the individual - no matter what they say. There are these peoples' democracies, nationalism - they're all dictatorships. And I think any kind of dictatorship is bad for the individual.
Frank Capra
#16. Capitalism is supposedly free enterprise. Supposedly about the free individual. But capitalism itself is so massive that the guy on the street gets caught in paying rent, taxes, and he doesn't own himself at all.
Frank Capra
#17. One is never completely satisfied. But I can say that I'm not dissatisfied. I've been very fortunate. I've been given some gifts - to take advantage of the contemporary times when I made movies. Gifts to make audiences laugh.
Frank Capra
#18. I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.
Frank Capra
#19. No saint, no pope, no general, no sultan, has ever had the power that a filmmaker has; the power to talk to hundreds of millions of people for two hours in the dark.
Frank Capra
#20. There's music in my films but you seldom hear it. Very early I got the idea that the important things in films were people - the actors. They are the intermediary between the director and the audience. They make direct contact. People to people communication.
Frank Capra
#21. The Oscar is the most valuable, but least expensive, item of world-wide public relations ever invented by any industry.
Frank Capra
#22. I have a feeling that demonstrations don't accomplish anything. That they become fads. I also feel that demonstrations wouldn't go on unless there is a TV camera. That part of it all is performance for the media. I didn't know whether they are completely honest.
Frank Capra
#23. All you can do is learn the skills of movies. Neither colleges nor anyone else can teach you creativity. They can teach you abilities to work with - you know how to use the gifts you've been born with.
Frank Capra
#24. Do not help the quick moneymakers who have delusions about taking possession of classics by smearing them with paint.
Frank Capra
#25. Whenever a situation develops to its extreme, it is bound to turn around and become its opposite.
Frank Capra
#26. War to me is the stupidest way of settling anything. The whole damn thing goes to pieces.
Frank Capra
#28. Automatic simply means that you can?t repair it yourself.
Frank Capra
#29. I have a sixth sense for casting. I just have to see and talk to the actors. I never make tests. I like to work with crowds. I like to get the principals in a crowd. When they do, something else comes off, something special.
Frank Capra
#31. I think the human spirit is a real powerful spirit. It has no limits and it has no ends. And I hate to see it put in any kind of box - pink or green.
Frank Capra
#32. Most ideologies of the world are not for the individual. They're against the individual. Communism, fascism. Any kind of an ism - almost - they're against the individual.
Frank Capra
#33. I always felt the world cannot fall apart as long as free men see the rainbow, feel the rain and hear the laugh of a child.
Frank Capra
#34. Film is one if three universal languages, the other two: mathematics and music.
Frank Capra
#35. Scriptwriting is the toughest part of the whole racket ... the least understood and the least noticed.
Frank Capra
#36. If you want to send a message, try Western Union.
Frank Capra
#37. My films must let every man, woman, and child know that God loves them, that I love them, and that peace and salvation will become a reality only when they all learn to love each other.
Frank Capra
#38. In our film profession you may have Gable's looks, Tracy's art, Marlene's legs or Liz's violet eyes, but they don't mean a thing without that swinging thing called courage.
Frank Capra
#39. My advice to young film-makers is this: don't follow trends, start them!
Frank Capra
#40. A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.
Frank Capra
#41. Film is universal. All the countries of the world are making films. Hollywood is the only major unsubsidized center for films. To my knowledge all others are at least partially subsidized. I'm glad Hollywood isn't.
Frank Capra
#42. There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.
Frank Capra
#43. In these days of wars and rumors of wars, haven't you ever dreamed of a place where there was peace and security, where living was not a struggle but a lasting delight?
Frank Capra
#44. Things own you. That's the trouble with capitalism. Things own you. With communism and fascism - ideas own you. One idea and you can't have any other.
Frank Capra
#45. When you get to political machines that can control a state, then you're really into organized crime - almost. You're fighting a political mafia.
Frank Capra
#46. Friend, you are a divine mingle-mangle of guts and stardust. So hang in there! If doors opened for me, they can open for anyone.
Frank Capra
#47. Making money, getting yourself status in this world is not everything at all. But it has become everything in America. That you really have to get going and keep up with the Jones'. Get a house and a car and other things. And pretty soon you're stymied. Things own you.
Frank Capra
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