The cinema is really built for the big screen and big sound, so that a person can go into another world and have an experience.

Eraserhead is my most spiritual movie. No one understands when I say that, but it is.

It's better not to know so much about what things mean or how they might be interpreted or you'll be too afraid to let things keep happening. Psychology destroys the mystery, this kind of magic quality. It can be reduced to certain neuroses or certain things, and since it is now named and defined, it's lost its mystery and the potential for a vast, infinite experience.

Because you make a world that didn't exist before, and you can go into that world deeper and deeper. It's unbounded out there. One film takes you into one area, another film takes you into another area. There could be trillions, zillions of worlds that exist in the big space.

A lot of artists think they want anger. But a real, strong, bitter anger occupies the mind, leaving no room for creativity.

The artist does not have to suffer to show suffering.

I believe in creative control. No matter what anyone makes, they should have control over it.