You could say that when you introduce humour to your work, you also step back a little from it. You create a distance.

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 had an almost fetishistic attraction to film technology.

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 always do something that I've never done before.

You could say that when you introduce humour to your work, you also step back a little from it. You create a distance.

I'm happy that I'm alive. I feel like someone coming back from Vietnam, you know; I'm sure that later on I'll start killing people in a square somewhere, but right now, I just feel happy to be alive.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

It's always been a lie that it's difficult to make films.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Political correctness kills discussion.

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

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

I did work out every day. I needed it to have the endurance to do what needed to be done and not get hurt. I have such a new respect for action stars now.

Work is the meat of life, pleasure the dessert.

This is God's work. Therefore it must be triumphant. There is no place for misgiving or despondency.

Yeah, that's what kind of, we get the idea a little bit yeah, because other people from different countries also try as hard as they can to get a medal or a gold medal in the Olympic Games. And you know, if they can work hard, we can work hard as well.

The work which is manipulated looks a little boring to me. I think life is pretty strange anyway. It is wooo, wooo, wooo!

I am not stopped by low funds, physical exhaustion, mental exhaustion, or temptations to stop and work on some other production that would be more financially rewarding.

The artist need not know very much; best of all let him work instinctively and paint as naturally as he breathes or walks.

Corporate partners help UNICEF fund our programmes for children, advocate with us on their behalf, or facilitate our work through logistical, technical, research or supply support.

The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.

The kinds of shows that seem to work now, the comedy shows, are those which require very little attention. They're superficial and I like articulate comedy.

The work that we do during the winter is very important; we have a new bike and it's important to develop it during this time, and we start with this test.

What an artist learns matters little. What he himself discovers has a real worth for him, and gives him the necessary incitement to work.

I work to stay alive.

When it is time to get to work, I go away completely and don't do anything except the work. And that can be 16 hours a day.

Some people don't like competition because it makes them work harder, better.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

Always, your work is the same: You have to tell a story, you have to make a character. It doesn't matter if there are thousands of dollars, millions behind it, or if there is nothing.

Style is as much under the words as in the words. It is as much the soul as it is the flesh of a work.

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don't believe too much into inspiration, only I'm waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It's a little too easy to say that.

I am always successful in my work.

Then I decided I couldn't just crawl in the corner and die, so I started putting pen to paper and wrote some songs. I had no idea what for or who I was going to work with. I tried to find my way and direction.