Lars von Trier Quotes

I think that limitations are the most important part of any art form

Evil gives you far more strings to pull. But I must say that I have never been interested in the psychology of evil, not in the slightest. Perhaps I’m not interested in evil, but in the dark sides of human beings.

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 every time it’s a woman in the lead, they take the ideals all the way.

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

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

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

If anyone would like to hit me, they are perfectly welcome. I must warn you, though, that I might enjoy it. So maybe it’s not the right kind of punishment.

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

The secret ingredient to sex is love.

Everything is going to hell, but we should smile all the way.

I am the best film director in the world.

A film should be like a rock in the shoe.

I think its 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.

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

I think that sexuality is the part of human beings that is closest to nature. And nature is dangerous somehow, yes, if you put nature against civilisation, nature is definitely a threat.

A film has to be like a stone in the shoe.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

One of the things that got me thinking during therapy is that they say that fear is only thoughts, and nothing will happen because thoughts will never be real. And my thesis, or joke, in film Antichrist, is that they really do become real.

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.

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

I had an almost fetishistic attraction to film technology.

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.

I am crazy about my own films. The films I’ve just made I’m crazy about them. But then I don’t see them for many years. It’s like when you get a new child you’re very crazy about this child but then after a few years you’re like, “what was its name again?”