Kalle Lasn Quotes

I don't go through a torturous intellectual process to decide what to direct. I know what I want to direct the second I read something or hear a story. I just know when it grabs me in a certain way I want to direct it. And then I spend the next four to six months trying to talk myself out of it, because directing is really hard! But it's true, I know essentially when and what I want to do next... it's an undeniable feeling I get and it's not the same feeling I get when I wind up producing something.

But, you know, when I choose a film I need to believe in it and believe I can do something special with it, and after a while that means not trying to judge or analyze why I should do it. You have to follow this intuition thing, which is a mystery to me.

Of course creativity is a mystery. We don't know what drives it or what constitutes it. It's one of those things, like genius, you know it when you see it but it's impossible to define.

I have instincts.

The artist's job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery. To intuit it, and recognize that the story-germ has some inherent mystery in it, and sort of midwife that mystery into the story in such a way that it isn't damaged in the process, and may even get heightened or refined.

You get a feeling about things, and if you trust yourself, which I've grown to do, I felt like I had a pretty good indication of how to play the role.

I don't consider myself bossy, but I do know what I want. You know, I have a gut feeling about a piece of material, but I've never envisioned myself as the director on top of the hill with a megaphone in my hand, screaming at 1,000 extras.

I never know if a song's going to be popular so I don't select them with that in mind. All I can do is follow my heart and my gut and go for songs that make me feel great.

All my career, all that I've really done has been based on emotion and intuition and gravitating toward what sounds good.

I had to go. A spirit in my feet said 'Go', and I went.

And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.

Rational intelligence is dangerous and leads to ratiocination. The painter is a medium who doesn't realize what he is doing. No translation can express the mystery of sensibility, a word, still unreliable, which is nevertheless the basis of painting or poetry, like a kind of alchemy.

The process of shooting - of choosing shots - is intuitive for me, and I just feel my way towards what seems right.

In this choice, as I look back over more than half a century, I can only follow - and trust - the same sort of instinct that one follows in the art of fiction.

There's something inside of me that just connects or doesn't connect with the project.

There has to be a level of intuition involved in what I do, and the more you use that intuition, the more honed it is.

When I decide to do things in my life, it's because I feel it.

My gut told me 'Kanaa' was worth taking up, and it's a dream role for any actor.

It is gut instinct that guides me when I say yes to a film.

For me, casting is very instinctive, and if I don't feel good about it, I just can't go ahead and make the film.

I only cast the actors and actresses I fall in love with - truly having an emotion for them, an anticipation and enthusiasm when seeing them - and I believe that my emotional confidence in them blends into chemistry. It's always been like that, and I hope I won't be wrong in the future.

For me it's a very organic process. I read the script/hear a narration and pretty much know instantly if it's something I want to be a part of or not. It's really as simple as that.

If you're drawing a Western town, you can duplicate that Western town from instinct alone. Some artists may take it from other illustrations or duplicate what you've drawn, but it will never have that gut reality that's instinctive in the artist.

A writer decides to follow some ideas and not others for reasons that aren't always clear to him. It's often a matter of intuition.

Methinks we have a clue. Be still, my heart.