Quotes from Lars von Trier

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.

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.

Nature is Satan's church.

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

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

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

I hope my films will never completely be without the ability to mark anybody.

Even if you feel all right, tell the actors you don't have full power, and they will help you.

Political correctness kills discussion.

I am very romantic about communism even still, but I know terrible things happened.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Unfortunately, on one or both of my shoulders sits lots of anxiety and that is a controlling factor in my life.

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

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

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.

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

I am not very tough with raising my children, but you can argue that to be more tough will help your children.

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.

I had an almost fetishistic attraction to film technology.

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.