Nicolas Winding Refn Quotes

I've been lucky to have a beautiful wife and children. The idea that something so beautiful can be so horrific at the same time. Beauty is a complex thing.

The best thing you can do with actors is collaborate with them. My job is to inspire them to give their best. And they're only inspired if they feel they are part of the creative process, otherwise they'll shut down. So my goal is always to ask people what they would like to do before I even say my opinion. I usually don't know anything until I see it. I'm a fetish filmmaker - I make films based on what I want to see.

Beauty is on one level pure surface, and on the other hand, it's the most complex subject that we can touch upon because it says everything about us as people. It's a subject we very quickly begin to argue about. I think that's so interesting.

I like doing the promotional work. It's part of the film's process. Cannes was very wonderful to premiere.

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.

The power of art is as powerful as weapons of mass destruction; it's just where war destroys, art inspires. But in order to inspire, you need to react to it. And, if it doesn't penetrate your mind, you can't react to it.

Love comes from the strangest places.

I love fear, and fear breeds creativity. It forces you to react instinctively, which is the essence of movement. Movement is a creativity - a sense of an emotional movement. And the more instinctual you can make that, the more pleasurable it is. It's like an infant drawing. You're completely uninhibited because creativity is a wonderful expression. Good or bad, who cares? That's part of the past. The act of creativity is what's interesting.

I don't drive because I failed eight times and never got my license.

Amazon, being a provider - not just on the playing field - is, of course, opening up a whole new set of possibilities. At the same time, Amazon also understands platforms. For them, theatrical is an extremely important event. I also believe it's the best way of seeing a movie.

Doing your first film, it's very important that it's a commercial success, because that gives you a couple times to experiment until you have to hit the jackpot again.

The fairy tale always takes place in worlds that are between, unidentifiable.

I feel Amazon is really bringing films into the future. So for me it was the best of both worlds.

Jenna Malone was a very important piece of how the film [The Neon Demon] turned out.

It was a very comfortable and personal relationship [Cliff Martinez ].'The Neon Demon'is our third movie and the music has never been as important as for this movie.

The character requires so many elements. The only one who could fulfill that was this one person: Elle Fanning.

The problem with cinema nowadays is that it's a math problem. People can read a film mathematically; they know when this comes or that comes; in about 30 minutes, it's going to be over and have an ending. So film has become a mathematical solution. And that is boring, because art is not mathematical.

I'm a fetish filmmaker, in that I don't know why I do what I do, I just like to see things. When I figure out what I would like to see, I will put it in a film.

I consider it a great honour that my movie Drive inspired so many wonderful artists to come together and create one ultra-cool glam experience.

Narcissism as a virtue is very futuristic. Narcissism as a quality is where I think things are heading.

I mean, what do you think creativity is? Nothing but self-indulgence. And the more self-indulgent it is, the more interesting it becomes. So I think that part of creativity is also falling in love with your own narcissism: accepting it, using it as an asset.

And to be fair, most documentaries are half an hour too long, anyway. Let's not kid ourselves. Most movies are an hour too long. I will say that the internet has changed everything in terms of distribution and because of iTunes and other outlets like that, length is no longer something you really think about, in my opinion. It's irrelevant.

Actually, there was one sequence but Liv didn't put this in but at the end of the movie, we ran out of money. Literally, ran out. And I couldn't make payroll. So I emptied all our accounts to make payroll. We were kinda like, "What do we do?" Then out of the blue, we were saved by Gucci. So it's always been like, you just gotta reach for the stars and hopefully the moon will catch you.

All my other movies have the same process. Same approach. Same amount of changes. Everything. Things being made up on the fly. Changing things around. Firing and recasting. Constantly, constantly, in chronological sequence, not really knowing how this is going to end up. That is the only dogmatic approach I take towards everything.

When we met, my agenda was "Get Elle Fanning." I believe Elle's was "Get the role." But we didn't know that.

I had met Keanu [Reeves]a few times so it was a great way to reach out to him with an actual job offer. He very kindly agreed to be part of it and it was an amazing experience.

The world needs change, change needs an activity. It has to be planted by a thought.

I remember To Live And Die In L.A. I saw that in the cinemas when I was young in the '80s. I remember the poster. It's a great poster.

I just think it was time [in THe Neon Demon]to do a film about women. But not just women, I wanted to do a movie about a teenage girl. It was a great counter to the masculinity of "Drive."

In the end, we're just showmen. But, I think that it's an important factor. Not to be anything else but clear about that - for me, creativity is an important part of our evolution. Art has probably done more good for the world than war. But they're equally powerful. They both create revolutions.

I never desired to really go to Hollywood and make films, and purely because I want my entire control, which I'm used to having.

For me, Amazon has stepped in and presented the future of entertainment. Obviously, the future of entertainment is going to be on the internet.

The first person I ever described the film [The Neon Demon] to was Christina Hendricks [who has a cameo in the movie]. We were having dinner in LA and she asked me what I wanted to do next and I said, "I want to do a horror movie." And she goes, "What's it going to be about?" And I said, "A lot of blood and high heels."

Everything we do is about the emotion of the characters. We believe the better the emotion, the better the movie.

I think everybody's looking for religion to believe in. I think we all need faith.

I don't do drugs, and so music very much gets me going. When I do something, I think, "If it was a piece of music, what would it be?"

I don't know if power seduces less or more. I think power is a constant evolving mechanism that, since the dawn of time, on one level corrupts and on another level does not. But I think, no matter what, mutates.

You must understand that violence in a movie is only a tool. If it's used badly, it will be horrible. If it's used correctly, it can be very interesting. But, essentially, it's just a tool.

I've never really been on a date, because I've been with the same girl since my early twenties, but on our first date, I showed her The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I was like, "Hey, you've got to see this!" And we've been together ever since.

I think the idea was to make a horror film that became a science-fiction film with a lot of melodramatic tropes.

Financially, it was very successful. Which is the most important thing. That is the only way you get to make another movie. It's very simple. The market will value you.

You know the one I want to do? I want to make Batgirl.

Financing films that are demanding is a task, in itself. Because people are so afraid of taking any kind of chance, because they're afraid the audience isn't going to respond. But the audience is so hungry for anything that's a bit original, personal, or different.

I've been making films with almost no dialogue (laughs), so sound and music become a very powerful character to tell the story. It's almost like with sound and music and images, it's your tool to tell the story, especially when I decide to structure the film in a way that usually goes against the conventions of the three-act structure which most films are made out of.

Creativity is narcissism. Creativity is falling in love with one's self as you create. It's self-indulgent.

I wanted to make a horror film about beauty.

Good and bad, what's good and bad? I don't know.

Man's fear of sexuality is the basis of all horror from the male perspective.