Nicolas Winding Refn

“Writing is fantasizing about what your film will be like. Shooting is reality. And the post-production is recovering the idea you had.”

“I know how terrifying L.A. can be, because I've been there as a failure. After 'Drive,' it was the most marvellous place in the universe.”

“I base everything on my instinctual approach. There's something very satisfying in that creativity, and it's a bit like an infant drawing.”

“Polarizing is the greatest achievement in any art form, even in cinema.”

“I think that art is an act of violence, and the more emotionally engaged you are in a piece of art, the more violent it feels.”

“When I was 12 or 13, I started going to the cinema myself.”

“I'm not a knowledgeable comic fanatic, as a lot of other people are.”

“I don't really make films in Denmark. 'Bronson' was shot in Rottingham, 'Valhalla Rising' was made in Glasgow, and 'Drive' was made in Hollywood.”

“It's hard to always challenge yourself, coming up with new ways to make your life difficult, so when you make something, it becomes more interesting.”

“I believe silence is the greatest sound of all.”

“Every film that you make has to have a scene that is the heart that blood flows through in every other scene. That scene doesn't always have to be in the beginning of the film. But it can also be at the end, or in the middle, and that can sometimes make the film more effective.”

“I would love to make a kids' movie. But they are very hard to make.”

“'Bronson' was like, 'I'll do a movie about my own life.' And it became like an experiment.”

“I think that, again, filmmaking is the director's medium in the end, and the best thing a producer can do is stay out of the way and support the director one hundred percent.”

“My writing has always been more out of the need to write a movie rather than me being a good writer.”

“I'm not a walking encyclopedia. I'm not one of those types that knows every single film ever made or can recite every dialog.”

“I like all kinds of film.”

“I like extremes.”

“People react to 'Drive' in a way that is very primal.”

“I'm glamour. I'm vulgarity. I'm scandal. I'm gossip. I'm the future. I'm the counter culture. I'm commercial reality. I'm artistic singularity.”