I just think it was time [in THe Neon Demon]to do a film about women. But not just women, I wanted to do a movie about a teenage girl. It was a great counter to the masculinity of "Drive."

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.

I mean that success has come early. And that is dangerous. Always dangerous.

As long as they don’t harm the environment, pay taxes, and don't do it in my bed, it’s none of my business.

God knows what you need because all you need is Jesus who is God.Matthew 6:25-34.

We never know where life is going to lead, Ethan. What so many small decisions are going to add up to.

By dint of saying that I'm not alive, I accept the fact that people cease to regard me.

Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness or else forgiving another.

Lies are infinite in number, and the truth so small and singular.

Bureaucracies typically move slowly, clumsily, and without much regard for the wants and needs of the people they supposedly serve.

Men are sheep. Where one goes, the rest will soon follow. -Lady Whistledown

In the name of a race you cannot find any dignity in the contemptability of your race.