To me, the art of movies is to take a two-dimensional image and give the illusion of depth.

Ive never seen a more terrifying film than 'The Bababook'. It will scare the hell out of you as it did me.

I'm not a fan of Star Wars. That is not for me. That is for my nephews and nieces. I don't get it.

The informing idea of what you want to say and do, that's what will take you from film school to professional - the idea. That's what is original to you.

Style is something that's extremely important, but it must grow naturally out of who and what you are and what the material calls for. It cannot be superimposed.

I believe it's true that there's good and evil in everyone and it's a constant struggle to have your better angels prevail.

Directing is a nice job. It's the best job for me. If I had to pay money to do it, I would do it... Directing is playing. Acting.

Violence is not funny.

And it was only a week later that I realized a close up of Steve McQueen was worth the greatest landscape you could find.

There are many untalented people making millions of dollars in the film business.

We all wind up the same way, no matter what our goals or ambitions are. We have nothing at all to say about how we got into this world or how are going to leave it.

Indeed, the human mind appeared to suffer from a crippling need to fabricate in the absence of concrete proof.

My family comes first. Maybe that's what makes me different from other guys.

The people are fed up with their elected officials playing the blame game and treating their political counterparts as enemies.

Yet my humble capacity has not preserved me from calumnies.

I would rather lose a good earring than be caught without make-up.

In this life and the next, you're my only hope at happiness.

A sin takes on a new and real terror when there seems a chance that it is going to be found out.

I'm obsessed with low end, its kind of my religion. In a way it has given me a chance to explore more than I have in any other project.

My father was working on his Ph.D. on Danish choral music - the Danish choral music of Carl Nielsen - so over there to do research.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do, but when you try to deal with prescient themes in the present, that is what you're doing.