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Daily Inspiration Quote by Frank Capra

"Don't follow trends, start trends"

About this Quote

"Don't follow trends, start trends" reads like a clean motivational sticker, but coming from Frank Capra it carries a sharper professional subtext: survival in an industry that mass-produces sameness. Hollywood has always rewarded repetition with money, then punished it with boredom. Capra’s line isn’t just a pep talk about originality; it’s a tactic for power. The person who starts the wave gets to define what “audiences want” before executives turn it into a formula.

Capra’s own career makes the advice feel earned rather than aspirational. He rose in the studio era, where directors were often interchangeable cogs, yet he developed a signature tone: populist, sentimental without being entirely naive, suspicious of institutions but still invested in community. His films didn’t simply mirror the culture; they sold the culture an idea of itself. That’s what “starting trends” really means here: shaping taste by packaging values as entertainment.

The line also smuggles in a warning about the psychic cost of trend-chasing. Following trends is a kind of creative outsourcing; you’re letting the market write your instincts. Capra implies that the only durable currency is authorship, not adoption. For a director, that translates into risking projects that look wrong on paper, resisting the safety of what tested well last quarter.

The irony is that Capra-style uplift became a trend itself, later dismissed as “Capra-corn.” The quote quietly anticipates that fate: if you lead, you’ll be copied, then caricatured. He’s arguing that the alternative is worse: living as a footnote to someone else’s daring.

Quote Details

TopicMotivational
Source
Later attribution: Writing in Pictures (Joseph McBride, 2012) modern compilationISBN: 9780571274383 · ID: nWtPNdp5rU8C
Text match: 95.00%   Provider: Google Books
Evidence:
... Frank Capra advised young filmmakers , " Don't follow trends . Start trends . " Writers who chase trends are like ambulance - chasing lawyers . They may get a few jobs here and there , but the work probably won't be very significant ...
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Capra, Frank. (2026, February 23). Don't follow trends, start trends. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/dont-follow-trends-start-trends-90802/

Chicago Style
Capra, Frank. "Don't follow trends, start trends." FixQuotes. February 23, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/dont-follow-trends-start-trends-90802/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Don't follow trends, start trends." FixQuotes, 23 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/dont-follow-trends-start-trends-90802/. Accessed 5 Apr. 2026.

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Do Not Follow Trends, Start Trends - Frank Capra
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About the Author

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Frank Capra (May 18, 1897 - September 3, 1991) was a Director from USA.

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