Lars von Trier famous quotes

Everything is going to hell, but we should smile all the way.
-- Lars von Trier

#Way #Hell #Should

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.
-- Lars von Trier

#Chess #Way #Opinion

Basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except filmmaking.
-- Lars von Trier

#Filmmaking

If one devalues rationality, the world tends to fall apart.
-- Lars von Trier

#Fall #World #Devalue

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.
-- Lars von Trier

#Thinking #Giving #Important

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

#Film #Illusion #Rapids

I think it's 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.
-- Lars von Trier

#Thinking #Guests #Way

The secret ingredient to sex is love.
-- Lars von Trier

#Sex #Secret #Ingredients

A film should be like a rock in the shoe.
-- Lars von Trier

#Rocks #Shoes #Film

If I made a musical in the beginning of my career, it would have been crane shots and tracking shots and people coming out of cakes and whatever, but these techniques are something that I've left behind me.
-- Lars von Trier

#Cake #Careers #People

I'm very proud of being persona non grata. I've never been that before in my life, and that suits me extremely wellI'm known for provocations, but I like provocations when they have a purpose. And this had no purpose whatsoever. Because I'm not Mel Gibson. I'm definitely not Mel Gibson.
-- Lars von Trier

#Purpose #Proud #Suits

I understand Hitler... I sympathize with him a bit
-- Lars von Trier

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
-- Lars von Trier

#Doe #Actors #Fool

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
-- Lars von Trier

#Worry #Entering #Great Things

I'm having a vacation, and it's so beautiful, and maybe I'll never get another film idea in my life.
-- Lars von Trier

#Beautiful #Vacation #Ideas

I had an almost fetishistic attraction to film technology.
-- Lars von Trier

#Technology #Film #Attraction

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.
-- Lars von Trier

#Evil #Visuals

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.
-- Lars von Trier

#Wine #School #White

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

#Men #Anxiety #Cameras

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.
-- Lars von Trier

#Clear

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

#School #Film #Form

I am the best film director in the world.
-- Lars von Trier

#Directors #World #Film

True values entail suffering. That’s the way we think. All in all, we tend to view melancholia as more true. We prefer music and art to contain a touch of melancholia. So melancholia in itself is a value. Unhappy and unrequited love is more romantic than happy love. For we don’t think that’s completely real, do we?…Longing is true. It may be that there’s no truth at all to long for, but the longing itself is true. Just like pain is true. We feel it inside. It’s part of our reality.
-- Lars von Trier

#Art #Pain #Real

I always do something that I've never done before.
-- Lars von Trier

#Done

I grew up in a culturally radical home, where strong emotions were forbidden.
-- Lars von Trier

#Strong #Home #Emotion

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.
-- Lars von Trier

#Important #Example #Bowie

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

#Giving #Video #Film

I encouraged the cast to make up their own lines.
-- Lars von Trier

#Lines #Casts

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

#Stronger #Want #Should

The risk is that you furnish the project with new suggestions to try and freshen it up; it's not always beneficial. You risk betraying the original intention with the story, forgetting what it is you really want to portray.
-- Lars von Trier

#Betrayal #Risk #Trying

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

#People #Political #Care

I think that limitations are the most important part of any art form
-- Lars von Trier

#Art #Thinking #Important

There is no creative expression of artistic value that has ever been produced by ex-drunkards and ex-drug-addicts. Who the hell would bother with a Rolling Stones without booze or with a Jimi Hendrix without heroin?
-- Lars von Trier

#Expression #Creative #Drug

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.
-- Lars von Trier

#Christian #Men #Ideas

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

#Three #Hours #Kill Me

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

#Children #Helping #Arguing

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

#Festivals #Film #Stakes

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

#Distance #Littles #Steps

Political correctness kills discussion.
-- Lars von Trier

#Political #Political Correctness #Discussion

It's always been a lie that it's difficult to make films.
-- Lars von Trier

#Lying #Film #Difficult

Perhaps the only difference between me and other people is that Ive always demanded more from the sunset,
-- Lars von Trier

#Sunset #Differences #People

A film has to be like a stone in the shoe.
-- Lars von Trier

#Shoes #Stones #Film