Quotes from Nicolas Winding Refn

Ironically, even the fashion in New York or Paris or Milan or whatever, or music in Berlin, or art in, I don't know, Madrid - all these scenes come and go. Everything leads back to Hollywood.

I can do my part of the storytelling. I can carry it. I can paint it. I can maneuver it. I can massage it. But if I don't have anything to work with, then there's nothing.

We live in a beauty-obsessed culture, which on one hand is absolutely fabulous, but on the flip side, is also dangerously extreme.

I wanted to make a horror film about beauty.

I don't have to go very far to see the power of beauty. Being desired, feeling desired is a very seductive aspect of our being.

I'm a huge admirer of Keanu. I think he's absolutely extraordinary.

I'm not a guy's guy. I always loved girl things. I loved dolls. I loved dressing up and much more.

I think that every man has a 16-year-old girl inside of him.

I think that art is an act of violence, and the more emotionally engaged you are in a piece of art, the more violent it feels.

The only thing that would really make my mother angry would be if I liked horror movies or violence or Ronald Reagan. And very violent films were a way for me to rebel. You have to rebel against your parents.

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.

I think that's the struggle of our normality is that we have oppressed desires because of what is accepted and not accepted in society.

I moved to New York when I was eight years old, in 1978. I grew up in Manhattan. I couldn't speak any English, and I had dyslexia, so it took me many years before I could read.

I certainly believe that creativity must be an experience. If I'm to steal time away from people, we should give them something to react to.

The act of creation can be an extreme violent experience.

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.

I had met Keanu [Reeves]a few times so it was a great way to reach out to him with an actual job offer. He very kindly agreed to be part of it and it was an amazing experience.

I think everybody's looking for religion to believe in. I think we all need faith.

Personally I kept my feelings out of it and created a fantasy. That's the process of going through this world being beautiful.

The future is not about what you do, it's about what you stand for.

For me, Amazon has stepped in and presented the future of entertainment. Obviously, the future of entertainment is going to be on the internet.