Lars von Trier Quotes

The worst thing you can do to a filmmaker is to walk out of his film and go, 'That was a nice movie.' But if you can cause people to walk out and then argue about the film on the sidewalk... I think we're all seeking dissension, and we love to affect an audience.

That's the real power of art, I think. Not to chide but to provoke challenge. Otherwise why bother?

We tried to make a movie that had sex and violence because we like sex and violence.

I'd rather create something that gives people a very strong reaction than create a show that someone looks at and says, 'Hmm. Fine.'

What drives me is what I'm putting out into the world, and I like to make films that people can connect to, or they can escape in.

As an artist, I want a reaction.

They're reacting and that's wonderful. It's better than them sitting there doing nothing. I say make them react - do whatever's in your power to move the audience, and if that's where it is, and there where it is with America, sex and violence, then I say project it.

We like reactions - a reaction is walking out on us, a reaction is throwing tomatoes at the stage, that's a healthy psychological reaction.

I think the point of art is to be controversial in a lot of ways. It's to cause conversations, and it's to get people excited about and talking about the things that the films are about.

I don't really care if people get upset. I think I'm doing my job if people get upset; I want them to think! We all want them to think, hopefully.

I do not make movies to send any message, but my treatment makes my viewers think on the subject.

And as a writer, one of the things that I've always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space. Because that's what we're supposed to do. Get under your skin, and make you react.

I prefer to make a film that people have a really intense reaction to than have a film that people feel ambivalent about.

I think the thing that is meaningful is when I can tell that someone's been affected by the movie or by anything I made.

'Funny Games' was conceived as a provocation. My other films are different. If people feel my other films are, or respond to them as provocation, then that's quite different. 'Funny Games' is the only one of mine where my intention was to provoke the audience.

I never deliberately set out to shock, but when people don't walk out of my plays I think there is something wrong.

I just try to write songs that people are going to have a dialogue about.

The culture is just so coarse that you have to take it to that level and people will be like, 'Whoa!' And then you can make people think about stuff. It's kind of like shock therapy.

I think good books have to make a few people angry.

Movies should make people uncomfortable sometimes.

End of Days is a lot of impact; it makes people open their eyes. It makes a statement.

People will love or hate 'Satta' and 'Stumped.' But they cannot ignore them.

I decided to make one of the most controversial songs that I could. I want to get under people's skin.

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

I always expect people to be torn when they see one of my films and divided in some way.