Yorgos Lanthimos Quotes

I like stirring the pot - I think it's part of my duty, to shake people up a bit - make them look at things in a different way.

I think it's part of the responsibility of an artist to shock, to upset, to make people think differently, and to surprise people. And that's where the good humor is, if there's a surprise and there's something unexpected. Something that's not normal, not in the realm of general living expectations.

I like people who shake other people up and make them feel uncomfortable.

I'm glad I've established this as my zone: 'the taboo breaker.'

Perhaps it is of more value to infuriate philosophers than to go along with them.

Being an artist is in part an act of rupture.

If your writing collides with the conventional wisdom, there's going to be some kind of friction.

I love challenging the status quo.

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've learned that I have to be happy with creating discussion and debate and that I shouldn't be trying to write a book that appeals to the consensus.

Being vital means knowing the rules and being brave enough to break them.

I just try to get away with as much as I can. I don't think that's very radical in the art world.

I like the idea that I'm making things that people might think and argue about.

I want to entertain, but I also want to push the barriers beyond what kids are conditioned into accepting.

As the generalization goes about the art industry, people can be really challenging and thought-provoking in their thinking and questioning the status quo, and it's really important that the status quo can be questioned and that there are people doing that.

All I really want to do is things I haven't done. 'I'm gonna put a paper bag on my head and be on the cover of 'Billboard,' see what I can get away with - if they'll let me.' And they let me. And I am literally giggling inside for, like, a month that I got away with it.

I've done some really off-the-wall stuff and stuff that people might not expect. That's one way to work through people's expectations of you.

I went to grad school because I wanted to learn the rules so I would know how to break them. Breaking the rules is saying, 'I'm breaking in, OK? I'm breaking in your very comfortable little house over here, and I'm going to take a room.'

What people don't realize is that when you start making things outside of the convention of what is normal or good or 'best practices,' you're also shedding some of the baggage that comes with the concept of what a game 'should' be.

I like to rattle cages.

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.

When you really make things that really challenge the status quo or challenge issues, and you do it artistically, and you do it with no fear, people are listening.

Defying genre conventions is instantly a risky move.

You should live hoping you are going to offend people, because then you're doing something.

I enjoy a challenge or provocation, something to think about, to talk about after it's done.