Michael Haneke Quotes

As an artist, I want a reaction.

You have a responsibility for the way you make the audience feel, and I want them to feel uncomfortable.

My aim was not to fool. My aim was to provoke thought and stir emotion.

I almost never try to make the audience comfortable. I wouldn't want that if I were in the audience.

Above all, I try to create an emotion to which others can respond.

It's very difficult to get an audience to be terrified of what's going on. Think about it: You're in a room with so many other people, so for them to be terrified and to care about what's going on on-screen takes a lot of work.

In film, there's always this looking for the 'If you lay down and burst into tears, you did a good job.'

It's not like we set out to antagonize the audience in any way. We're just presenting our music; it's really much more innocent.

One of the things I love about music and making beats is making something and watching someone's reaction, knowing you can do something to manipulate the way people move or act.

I'm not trying to convince anybody of anything. I just want (the audience) to have an experience that moves them.

Sometimes art is just about getting a reaction, that's really the end-all be-all.

Emotionally involving the audience is easy. Anybody can do it blindfolded: get a little kitten and have some guy wring its neck.

Why do my movies make people feel so dead inside?

When I was working with Stanley Kubrick [on "Eyes Wide Shut"], he would always say, "You never tell the audience what to feel. Let them choose to have their responses."

When I write, I disturb. When I show a film, I disturb. When I exhibit my painting, I disturb, and I disturb if I don't. I have a knack for disturbing.

I like to challenge the audience. I want people to feel discomfort.

I believe that films are meant for entertainment, but in that process, you have the possibility to think about what kind of entertainment you're giving to audiences.

Humor is the secret into the audience's other ranges of emotions.

I don't think it's right to define films as commercial or art house. What's important is that a film evokes a certain emotion when it's being watched.

Any film I make, my intention is always to make people like it.

I sometimes close my eyes during a show because I have drawn a picture of an audience enjoying the show more on the back of my eyelids.

I hope my films will never completely be without the ability to mark anybody.

I've made movies on every part of the spectrum, and you do understand when you go into certain movies that you're trying to elicit a certain kind of response from the audience, and people get a real sense of satisfaction when they're rooting for a character and the character pulls it off.

The opinion of the public is sacred. The director is a cook who merely offers different dishes to them and has no right to insist they react in a particular way. A film is just a projection of light, completed only when it crosses the gaze of the audience[...]

I just love any kind of language that can change the energy in a room. There are no limits for me, as long as it feels like it's being used in a particular way to garner or elicit a very particular reaction, so that you can then use that reaction later for something else. But when it's gratuitous language or physical exposure, then I get a bit like, "Oh! Put it away!"