Mary Harron Quotes

There's absolutely no point in beating yourself up. Focus on going forward.

I really dislike it when women reject feminism; that's ridiculous. I am a product of feminism. Without feminism I would not be making films.

I just don't think I'm an ideological filmmaker in any way. I don't know how anyone could see anything I've done and see that.

I make unpopular versions of popular things. I make a horror film and it's not a horror film. None of my genre movies function as genre movies.

Punk rock, when I was a part of it, was called 'the underground.' There was something very attractive in all the hidden places, the hidden histories.

Mostly I'm just not American. I spent four years of my childhood here, but I think if you're Canadian you have a very different perspective. You don't think you're at the center of things.

Someone can be mentally ill, but if they are young and beautiful and their life is going well, people don't notice because at that point the cracks are almost imperceptible.

I think any big success is paralyzing. I have observed it in others.

They say that depression is anger you turn on yourself, and I think women do that.

There was a lot of anger among critics that I had not made a sexy movie.

I was lucky with my first film because it had Warhol in it. That was the selling point.

Frankly, you're always up and down. You're successful and then you're not.

I realized you can always make money; you just do a lot of things.

Americans always think they have to lead. I'm interested in ambiguity.

I grew up interested in the underside of Hollywood, which I think David Lynch does really well.

If you have had some taste of success, it's extremely addicting. I think the withdrawal from that is what's most devastating. I don't think it's the success that kills people, it's the withdrawal.

At any age you can start over. You have to drop the idea of where you should be in your career. And you have to do without a lot of love. Not everyone's going to love you.

Bettie Page was the first person to do bondage as fashion, because for her it really was all about dressing up.

I'm bored by films that revolve around a trick. I kind of know if a film is right for me; all the most important decisions are made intuitively.

I was very ambitious at a young age. When I was six, I would tell everybody that I wanted to be an authoress.

The really important people in TV are not the directors; they're the writers.

My films have elements of genre in them, which prevents them from being purely art films.

The good part of working in TV is it's like being a studio director in old Hollywood and approaching different genres. It's a chance to try out different styles.

Some actors can draw from their own darkness.

I'm not trying to make the world a better place.

Movies are a commitment. They take years of your life and they have big consequences. That's one of the bad things about movies - you're stuck with the aftermath.

One thing I'm not is a moralistic filmmaker. I'm not trying to tell people what to do, and I'm not trying to lead.