Lars Von Trier Quotes

If one devalues rationality, the world tends to fall apart.

Far be it from me to force anyone into either chess or dressage, but if you choose to do so yourself, in my opinion there is only one way: follow the rules.

Everything is going to hell, but we should smile all the way.

A film should be like a rock in the shoe.

If anyone would like to hit me, they are perfectly welcome. I must warn you, though, that I might enjoy it. So maybe it's not the right kind of punishment.

If you want to provoke, you should provoke someone who is stronger than you, otherwise you are misusing your power.

Perhaps the only difference between me and other people is that Ive always demanded more from the sunset.

I think it's important that we all try to give something to this medium, instead of just thinking about what is the most efficient way of telling a story or making an audience stay in a cinema.

I am a man of very many anxieties but doing strange things with the camera is not one of them.

I think its a very strange question that I have to defend myself. I don’t feel that. You are all my guests, it’s not the other way around, that’s how I feel.

Basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except filmmaking.

More than anything, there are more images in evil. Evil is based far more on the visual, whereas good has no good images at all.

I think that limitations are the most important part of any art form

I think that sexuality is the part of human beings that is closest to nature. And nature is dangerous somehow, yes, if you put nature against civilisation, nature is definitely a threat.

I am the best film director in the world.

I am a man who likes to control things, and if I can't control them totally I will not control them at all.

I like gardening. I'm really a nature man. I spend as much time as I can in nature. I feel really safe there.

My films generally center around thousands of pictures being flashed in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion.

I come from a family of communist nudists. I was allowed to do or not do what I liked. My parents were not interested in whether I went to school or got drunk on white wine.

It is more difficult to manipulate with film than, for instance, video. The problem with video is that it gives you a thousand possibilities.

Unfortunately, on one or both of my shoulders sits lots of anxiety and that is a controlling factor in my life.

I had a lot of frustrations, and I was drinking far too much, and I was just trying to survive and this is what came out of it.

If there are some people that like the film and some people that do not, that's fine for me, because I do not intend to make very broad films.

When I was younger, I was fascinated by David Bowie, for example. he had created an entire myth around himself. It was as important as his music.

That's the great thing about entering a convent: There are things that you simply can't do, so you don't have to worry about them

Political correctness kills discussion.

I’m having a vacation and it’s so beautiful and maybe I’ll never get another film idea in my life.

I am very romantic about communism even still, but I know terrible things happened.

You know, I really do have some morals. I do actually care about people. And I do have a political standpoint.

I grew up in a culturally radical home, where strong emotions were forbidden.

I would say that I am a poor Christian; I'm not a believer. It was this idea very early in my life that life on Earth, nature or man could not be a creation of a merciful God.

A film has to be like a stone in the shoe.

I know that I cannot be with a person for three hours without saying at least ten things that would kill me.

I understand Hitler... I sympathise with him a little bit.

I'm not a woman! Let's make that very clear! Oh I don't know, maybe I am. I am an American woman. Or 65 percent of me is.

I hope my films will never completely be without the ability to mark anybody.

I did a lot of strange things. But I am a bad Catholic that's for sure. Although I think it's difficult to believe in evil.

I am not very tough with raising my children, but you can argue that to be more tough will help your children.

You could say that when you introduce humour to your work, you also step back a little from it. You create a distance

It's always been a lie that it's difficult to make films.

Only a fool does not fear actors, but you can't beat them, and if you can't beat them, join them, as they say. As I've got older I've become very interested in that part of the work

I always do something that I’ve never done before...

We start with a rehearsal where the actors kind of bring what they think should be in the scene. But we film everything, and we use cuts of this first take, also.

Even if you feel all right, tell the actors you don't have full power, and they will help you.

When I show a film at a festival, I am showing myself. Everything is at stake for me.

I encouraged the cast to make up their own lines.

Just the fact that you're working is good for you.

If people do not laugh it's not comedy.

When I was in film school, it was said that all good films were characterised by some form of humour.

I had an almost fetishistic attraction to film technology.