Nicolas Winding Refn

The more we become civilized, the more we simultaneously understand our need to be virtuous and our need to understand our experiences on a subconscious level.

There will always be a theatrical experience because there will always be cinemas no matter what. It's like there will always be theaters to have stage plays in.

It's hard to always challenge yourself, coming up with new ways to make your life difficult, so when you make something, it becomes more interesting.

You cannot go through life without cause and effect.

Bronson' was like, 'I'll do a movie about my own life.' And it became like an experiment.

Art has the power to influence and to make you react to something that you normally wouldn't concern, worry, or even think about or wouldn't want to talk about.

Art thrives on obstacles. The bigger the obstacle, the better the drama.

I always, as a firm rule, make my movies based on how inexpensively I can make them because that means the more freedom I'm going to have.

I would love to make a romantic comedy.

I'm a very funny man, so funny comes natural. And if you want to create horror, you need to be funny or campy.

I believe silence is the greatest sound of all.

My mother and stepfather were documentary filmmakers and, of course, had a very healthy Scandinavian mentality. When it came to cinema, my mother was very obsessed with the French New Wave. That was her generation.