Quotes from Nicolas Winding Refn

People have called me everything. Every word in the dictionary I've been called at one point or another.

Denmark is like a Sylvanian world, but one thing it breeds is malady. The malady is generally in good taste. Opinions are correct. That is the chief enemy of creativity.

Cinema is mass media, it is both overtly gross and exciting. It is our great mirror of society.

To me, the darkest film ever made and the film, to me, that's the darkest picture in the human humanity's soul is 'Pretty Woman.'

I think that, again, filmmaking is the director's medium in the end, and the best thing a producer can do is stay out of the way and support the director one hundred percent.

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

Coming to Hollywood, you always hear the horror stories, but I had good people around me who maybe didn't understand what I was doing but always protected me.

Filmmaking is like any kind of art form. You have to try to figure it out, and you're going to do that by trying.

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 know how terrifying L.A. can be, because I've been there as a failure. After 'Drive,' it was the most marvellous place in the universe.

I'm a very feminine man. I like feminine things. I don't go to strip clubs. I don't drink beer. I don't play sports.

Doing your first film, it's very important that it's a commercial success, because that gives you a couple times to experiment until you have to hit the jackpot again.

That's half of what we do our daily lives - we react to our surroundings. Of course, we have to make it entertaining, and we are entertainers.

I started making films purely based on what I would like to see.

I started buying films a couple of years ago. The first film-maker I began to obsessively collect was Andy Milligan. He was a New York frustrated artist.

The first thing I do when I go to people's houses is look at their television, turn it on.

I don't really make films in Denmark. 'Bronson' was shot in Rottingham, 'Valhalla Rising' was made in Glasgow, and 'Drive' was made in Hollywood.

My writing has always been more out of the need to write a movie rather than me being a good writer.

People react to 'Drive' in a way that is very primal.

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.

Creativity is about a reaction.

For me, the greatest pleasure is when you make something, and everyone argues about it.

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

I also believe on a practical level, if you're taking time away from people, besides entertaining them, I think it's important that there's something to react to.