Nicolas Winding Refn

“I'm not a guy's guy. I always loved girl things. I loved dolls. I loved dressing up and much more.”

“The best way to move forward - to bury the past. That doesn't mean you forget it.”

“I think 'Videodrome' was an absolute philosophical masterpiece.”

“I thought it would be interesting to try something in Hollywood after a movie like 'Valhalla Rising,' which I was really pleased with, personally.”

“If an actor or actress is recognizable, that changes our perception of them. Sometimes you can play against type, or you can just repeat what they've already done. It can be an obstacle; it's a very fine line.”

“Art is very much about making your weaknesses your strength.”

“I love watching the superhero movies, and I would love to make one. But in a way, 'Drive' is probably the greatest superhero movie ever made.”

“The greater the darkness, the better the drama.”

“Creativity is about a reaction.”

“I was very affected as a foreigner coming from Copenhagen, which is the safest, most liberal town in the entire galaxy. I was like an alien stranded in a strange land for the first time in the U.S.”

“I love to be on location. I love to be in other parts of the world. I love to be where I'm reminded about real, you know, emotions. I love to touch things and design things, and I think that, for the actor, it certainly - it certainly helps their performance.”

“Filmmaking is not about what we see - it's a very misconceived notion; it's about what we don't see.”

“All my films represent my own needs and wants.”

“We live in a time where it's very much in vogue, constant search for pure utopian equality, and which, on one level, is quite amusingly silly but also on another probably very important.”

“Art has the power to influence and to make you react to something that you normally wouldn't concern, worry, or even think about or wouldn't want to talk about.”

“I moved to New York when I was eight years old, in 1978. I grew up in Manhattan. I couldn't speak any English, and I had dyslexia, so it took me many years before I could read.”

“I'd love to do a yakuza movie.”

“A good director is not an expert in anything in particular. A good director just knows a little bit about everything.”

“I'm dyslexic, which means I have trouble reading and writing. So images really speak to me.”

“The most creative phase of a film is in shooting, because structure is the defining element of that phase.”