Quotes from Panos Cosmatos

I've had a VHS collection for many, many years. But I would prefer to watch a movie in the best format possible.

I just find there's nothing funnier and more scary than a delusional man who thinks they're the center of the universe, and in fact they're not.

The way people express themselves online, that's also how they express themselves in the real world.

Me writing 'Black Rainbow' was me alone in a windowless room going insane.

I think you have to be wise and know your limitations and know how to work within them.

I feel like I thrive in the red light.

I feel happy working in the low-budget realm, doing stuff that is a little bit more esoteric, and personal.

I think the first music I ever heard was Abba. I took my mother's cassette recorder and went into the bushes to listen to Abba when I was four or five-years-old.

If I'm going to sell out, I'm going to sell out all the way, so a bid by the studio would be if you're going to go through the pain of trying to make a film, it's gotta be worth it.

Black Rainbow' is about control and your emotions being repressed and controlled, and 'Mandy's' about all a volcanic eruption!

1984 is such an iconic, loaded year in so many ways.

There was a time in my life when I would literally go see every single film that came out in the theaters. No matter what. I just became obsessed with movies, and wound up getting drawn to the pulsating grain of film and the flickering of the light.

Just making 'Black Rainbow' was like my minimum requirement before death, so that I could die with some honour and not in total shame.

You write a character, but in essence, it's just a concept of what it could be, and then actors come in and they have their own sort of interpretations and thoughts. If you respond to those and then go forward with them, then it's kind of like magic to see the idea you had become alive and in the flesh.

A huge part of my writing process is listening to music as I write, almost creating an unofficial soundtrack to the film I'm working on, a sort of playlist. But the specific songs change rapidly as I write.

Certain things just rub me the wrong way.

The idea of creating a quote-unquote 'retro' world isn't all that appealing to me by itself.

The way I work is I'll basically become kind of fixated on a very stripped-down genre, like revenge or something like that, and just start layering on top of that and entering in thoughts and ideas, and then the story just kind of builds up that way.

In the '90s, I kind of put aside all those things I loved in the '80s and I got really into watching foreign films and art films and stuff like that, and sort of soaking those up.

I've always liked the idea of merging esoteric art cinema with down-and-dirty exploitation films.

Motley Crue was actually my gateway to heavy metal.

A lot of films mistake convolutedness for complexity. To me, a simple story can be a powerful spine to build around.

I'm too neurotic to ever feel good. If I ever felt good, I think something horrible would happen.

We moved around a lot when I was younger. I never really felt at home until we moved to Canada, but even then, I always felt strangely out of place and alien.