Pontus Hulten Quotes

Unfortunately, we are not painters and authors, where we can do something in isolation. We require a lot of money to create what we create. It's almost like being an architect: You can't be an architect and build whatever buildings you want to.

Senator Helms might very well do that. I would point out to him that we in the art world are not necessarily in the business of making controversial art.

Even American artists are terrorized by market forces. If one can't see the films, my wings are clipped. I am no longer concerned about this, because I'm focused on making films. Perhaps one day someone who discovers sunken treasures will reexamine my 35 or 36 films - I hope it will be 40 or 50 before I die.

It would be difficult, in this day and age, to fund art that made racial slurs.

Concerning First Amendment fetishism - A federal subsidy for a photo of a crucifix suspended in a jar of urine is fine, but religious figures on stamps are offensive.

What I'm very upset about is the attempt to dictate to museums what they show, and the statements made by politicians in Washington that have curtailed the freedom of the National Endowment for the Arts. The attention to those issues is deflected by the spin of my supposedly having trivialized the Holocaust.

I was shocked. They were going to give me money to make this really odd show? Well, I still had little thought of it going to series, but I thought it was great that my next short film was going to be paid for.

If art is singular expression, then by nature, the best art is controversial. But when art stirs debate for reasons besides its artistic integrity, that's when things get bent.

As long as I can make lots of money in other businesses, I'll continue to subsidize my own work.

I really wish people - maybe it's naive - wish people had priorities and were willing to be artistic patrons.

Performers have the right to say what they want to, and anyone paying money has the right to accept or reject the art and entertainment that's available.

In Africa, those who have money - businessmen and banks - do not believe in film.

I've never been that much of a money guy. I'm more of a film guy, and most of the money I've made is in defense of trying to keep creative control of my movies.

There was an exhibition in Munich in 1937, 'Degenerate Art,' which included work by Klee, Kandinsky, Beckmann and many others. The work was called 'sick' and put in the trash heap. The sentiments expressed toward contemporary art by Jesse Helms, Pat Robertson and Mayor Giuliani recall the language used by the Nazis.

Well, we have certainly produced great art before we did this. In my view, there are any number of areas of government which tax money should not be spent.

I just get the feeling that if Jesse Helms was in charge of art in America, you'd go into a museum and see nothing but prints of dogs playing cards.

As long as Federal dollars are used to finance art projects, Congress will have the responsibility to its constituents to determine what type of art taxpayer dollars will support.

What I really think about Banksy is I think he's a genius; he's a great artist, and I like his stuff. But he's got to accept it if, from time to time, someone will need to paint over his work.

In this new world where art is willfully misinterpreted to score points and to distract, simply doing the work of an artist has become a political act.

It kind of irks me that the studio films still have to be so safe even though they don't really cost as much to make.

Music is an artform, and I always though art was beyond censorship. I thought this was a common view. Apparently, I was wrong.

I can't think of anything outside of having the gift yourself and creating yourself. I can't think of the next better thing to do than being able to put it back. Creative expression, I think, is vital to the success of any society.... A society without art will die.

It's true that the human body is more vulnerable than the products of the human mind. We need to protect artists and journalists people to allow them to work.

I don't think the government should touch art. Governments are risk averse. They encourage risk-averse personalities to be artists.

Where any view of money exists, art cannot be carried on.