Some “words to the wise” from director Francis Coppola (The End of Youth, Apocalypse Now), as taken from his on-camera opening commentary on the relatively new Patton DVD that came out in late May. (Coppola worked on the screenplay when he was 27 or so.) Every aspiring filmmaker and screenwriter reading this needs to take two minutes and listen.

And here’s a Time magazine q & a with Coppola, which contains a variation on that thing he said a while back about still feeling sixteen and that a filmmaker need the bravery of youth to make a movie, etc. I love reading this because I feel sixteen too. Okay, not always but some of the time. Actually I feel better than sixteen during these cycles because the exuberance is there without the confusion, fear and intimidation that go with being that age.