I like all kinds of film.

Every film that you make has to have a scene that is the heart that blood flows through in every other scene. That scene doesn't always have to be in the beginning of the film. But it can also be at the end, or in the middle, and that can sometimes make the film more effective.

I've always felt that I was from the future because the future is really not about what you make but what you stand for.

I think 'Videodrome' was an absolute philosophical masterpiece.

Art has the power to influence and to make you react to something that you normally wouldn't concern, worry, or even think about or wouldn't want to talk about.

I'm calculated in other things, but not in what I make.

People react to 'Drive' in a way that is very primal.

Creativity is about taking what is the norm and expanding it and continuing to expand it and expand it and expand it and expand it.

Filmmaking is like any kind of art form. You have to try to figure it out, and you're going to do that by trying.

L.A. films are hard to define compared to New York films because New York films are their own subgenre, in a way. L.A. is more transparent.

I would love to make a kids' movie. But they are very hard to make.

I would love to make a romantic comedy.

For me, the greatest pleasure is when you make something, and everyone argues about it.

All my films represent my own needs and wants.

I'd love to do a yakuza movie.

The best way to move forward - to bury the past. That doesn't mean you forget it.

I started buying films a couple of years ago. The first film-maker I began to obsessively collect was Andy Milligan. He was a New York frustrated artist.

Television is dead. And television will not be reborn. It will not come back.

People need to express themselves. The more you do that, the better a person you become.

People have called me everything. Every word in the dictionary I've been called at one point or another.

Denmark is like a Sylvanian world, but one thing it breeds is malady. The malady is generally in good taste. Opinions are correct. That is the chief enemy of creativity.

The only thing that would really make my mother angry would be if I liked horror movies or violence or Ronald Reagan. And very violent films were a way for me to rebel. You have to rebel against your parents.

You cannot go through life without cause and effect.

I'm a huge John Hughes fan, and I grew up in the '80s, when his films came out. So, my introduction to what you'd call 'cinema love,' that illusion of love, was 'Sixteen Candles' and Molly Ringwald.

I've always worked a lot with silence in my films. It forces the audience to concentrate on what they're seeing, because silence is pure emotions. It has no logic; it goes straight to the heart.

Creativity is about a reaction.

Polarizing is the greatest achievement in any art form, even in cinema.

I thought it would be interesting to try something in Hollywood after a movie like 'Valhalla Rising,' which I was really pleased with, personally.

My writing has always been more out of the need to write a movie rather than me being a good writer.

I'm not a walking encyclopedia. I'm not one of those types that knows every single film ever made or can recite every dialog.

I love watching the superhero movies, and I would love to make one. But in a way, 'Drive' is probably the greatest superhero movie ever made.

With 'Only God Forgives,' what's great about that movie is it just freaked so many people out.

I love to be on location. I love to be in other parts of the world. I love to be where I'm reminded about real, you know, emotions. I love to touch things and design things, and I think that, for the actor, it certainly - it certainly helps their performance.

I'm not a knowledgeable comic fanatic, as a lot of other people are.

A good director is not an expert in anything in particular. A good director just knows a little bit about everything.

Art thrives on obstacles. The bigger the obstacle, the better the drama.

I very much love Los Angeles, and I love working here. I find it very inspiring and very creative, and some of the best crews are in Los Angeles.

I think that, again, filmmaking is the director's medium in the end, and the best thing a producer can do is stay out of the way and support the director one hundred percent.

L.A. is, on one hand, very mysterious; it's very modern. It's a mysterious place - it's a haunting place - and everything in our culture around the world of entertainment leads back to Hollywood.

Art is very much about making your weaknesses your strength.

If an actor or actress is recognizable, that changes our perception of them. Sometimes you can play against type, or you can just repeat what they've already done. It can be an obstacle; it's a very fine line.

A lot of the surreal filmmakers, like David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, or countless other underground filmmakers... Their sense of explosive images have always dominated their films. It's a way to shock the senses, to make them open themselves.

I love to look at beauty.

We're premiering 'The Neon Demon' in Cannes, which is the representation of 'The Neon Demon,' which is all about glamour and vulgarity.

I like to take things as they come.

I was very affected as a foreigner coming from Copenhagen, which is the safest, most liberal town in the entire galaxy. I was like an alien stranded in a strange land for the first time in the U.S.

Good and bad are not really relevant to me.

I'm a very funny man, so funny comes natural. And if you want to create horror, you need to be funny or campy.

Hollywood is Hollywood. It'll never change, although it does go through its own transformations. I think that there's this obsessiveness with making money, which has gotten out of proportion.

I don't really make films in Denmark. 'Bronson' was shot in Rottingham, 'Valhalla Rising' was made in Glasgow, and 'Drive' was made in Hollywood.