Creativity is very self-indulgent.

Like all art forms, film is a media as powerful as weapons of mass destruction; the only difference is that war destroys and film inspires.

I don't believe that art makes people violent in any way. I don't. But I do believe art can show people how to be violent and that's much more dangerous in a way.

I think that I am a pornographer, meaning that I make movies based on what excites me and what I would like to see.

The artificial world that we create through images will essentially become real.

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

Creativity is narcissism. Creativity is falling in love with one's self as you create. It's self-indulgent.

In a way, art is a great way to release your love, fantasy, and desires. It's like a fetish. It's a comfortable way of excising a lot of your conscience.

Look at the birth of anything; it's always more violent than anything you could ever imagine.

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

Understanding one's own power is more interesting than someone being given something powerful.

Good luck in a way is bad luck not occurring, but the world wants stories of how bad luck happened, and how good luck played a savior.

And marking off time struck me as something like counting empty spaces—spaces you know can't ever be filled.

You can spend an entire day walking around in New York, whereas in L.A., it always ends at some point because you have to find a way to get home.

Being talked about like a package - I feel like that all the time.

Every criticism or slight against you, warranted or not, received or endured humbly, is written in heaven for your reward.

There are situations that refuse to be photographed. But at other times nothing will stop me, because I know my pictures will not shout against anyone - only against time.

How about having a properly equipped crash cart?

If you're going to read minds, start with a simple one.

Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and madder by enjoyment.

It is not altogether a bad thing to have criminal ancestors. An arsonist grandfather may bequeath one a nose for smelling smoke.