Nowadays, teenagers are so fast and quick to see through any form of manipulation. Sitting down and just thinking of something is like watching really bad pornography.

I don't have to go very far to see the power of beauty. Being desired, feeling desired is a very seductive aspect of our being.

I love watching the superhero movies and I would love to make one.

Personally I kept my feelings out of it and created a fantasy. That's the process of going through this world being beautiful.

My movie [The Neon Demon] is a hyper-version of the obsession with beauty. As this crazy obsession grows, longevity does not. Everything seems to become younger and younger. The girls and people around them cannibalize themselves.

I grew up in the '80s and John Hughes was the filmmaker making serious movies for teenagers.

I think that's the struggle of our normality is that we have oppressed desires because of what is accepted and not accepted in society.