Lars von Trier Quotes

«It`s a weak nation that finds it appropriate to execute its own citizens to uphold moral.»

A big part of our lives has to do with America. In our country it is overwhelming. I feel there could just as well be an American military presence in Denmark. We are a nation under a very bad influence, because I think Bush is an asshole and doing a lot of really stupid things. America is sitting on the world and therefore I am making films about it. I`d say 60% of the things I have experienced in my life are American, so in fact I am an American. But I can`t go there and vote. That`s why I am making films about America.

Actors need bricks to play with, and in fact we rejected all the improvised fragments we had made without a plan. Improvisation without a plan is like tennis without tennis balls.

Jeg er vel ligesom alle andre mennesker. Jeg er glad for priser - Men de gør mig ikke lykkelig (I am like all other people. I am pleased with prizes, but they don`t make me happy) (when asked what the prizes his movies won meant to him)

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.

Since I have said I am 60% American I can say there is one thing that kills any debate - an American disease called political correctness, which is a fear of talking ... What makes me a little bit sad is that there`s an American TV show in which the president of the US is black. People say, `Oh look, that`s OK, there`s a black president on TV.` That`s completely humiliating because that`s not how it is. There`s no black president. Political correctness kills discussion.

A film should be like a rock in the shoe.

Put my American trilogy together and you`ll have one hell of a grim evening. And you will not be entertained at all!

I sit there pouring out my woes year after year, coming up with one enormity after another about my mother and the way she let me down; but it doesn`t make me any the less fearful.

If his creation is so great, why does God want us on our knees?

I`m happy that I`m alive. I feel like someone coming back from Vietnam, you know; I`m sure that later on I`ll start killing people in a square somewhere, but right now, I just feel happy to be alive.

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.

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

I had an almost fetishistic attraction to film technology.

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.

Forget all the excuses, `the childish fascination` and `the all embracing humility`, for this is my confession, black on white: I, Lars von Trier, am but a simple masturbator of the silver screen.

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

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.

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

Jeg er et sted ligenu hvor det roder mere end det plejer ("I am at a place right now, where it`s more messy than usual" - When asked about his mental state.

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

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

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

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.

There are a lot of Americans I sympathise with very much, but not the Government right now, no. We just do not agree on politics, but that`s not being Anti-American. I am critical about a country with a system that allows so many losers. I think that is wrong.

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.

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

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

American studios give money to directors to educate them away from their creative fingerprint, even if that`s the reason they wanted them in the first place. I`ve avoided that fate by making movies here. You have to fight the urge to do a big action movie. You avoid `Batman.` The bigger it is, the worse it is.

My films are about ideals that clash with the world. Every time it`s a man in the lead, they have forgotten about the ideals. And everytime it`s a woman in the lead, they take the ideals all the way.

I don`t think I tortured Nicole on Dogville, but I know she said I was tough.