Nicolas Winding Refn Quotes

If you're not allowed to experiment anymore for fear of being considered self-indulgent or pretentious or what have you, then everyone's going to just stick to the rules - there's not going to be any additional ideas.

There can't be art without risk. It's like saying No Sex, and then expecting there to be children.

You're not always going to hit the bull's-eye. I'm going to make movies that work and I'm going to make movies that don't work, and that's just a part of being creative. Because really, I think if you're taking risks and you're pushing yourself and you're doing things that scare you, you are going to fall on your face, and it's not always going to work.

Art like life, should be free, since both are experimental.

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

I tend to just do whatever I want on an album and try to make it work. I'm just adventurous. It's most exciting to be at the edge of your abilities. I want to see how far I can push things.

I think when you take the big swings - and I've done plenty of big swings that I was told were never going to work - those are always the things that break through.

I feel every day that everything I create - everything I do - I want it to be a risk. I think when you take the big swings - and I've done plenty of big swings that I was told were never going to work - those are always the things that break through.

I think if you don't risk something in art, it's not really important.

In art, you CAN crash your plane and walk away from it

We're all trying to be artists making our own unique statements. I think the only real way to do that is through failure.

There's a lack of creativity in every field because people are afraid. As an artist in this world we can do whatever we want

What keeps me awake at the wheel is the thrill of trying something completely new with each book. I’m not a risk-taker in life, generally speaking, but as a writer I definitely choose the fast car, the impossible rock face, the free fall.

The reason I shift gears constantly, why I'm doing an opera, why I've done essays, why I've written poetry for years that nobody wanted, why I do short stories and novels and screenplays... is so I will have new ways of failing. This means becoming a student again.

The only pictures worth making are the ones that are playing with fire.

I would say to any artist: Don't be repressed in your work, dare to experiment, consider any urge, if in a new direction all the better.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

An artist should be taking risks. That's the whole idea of being an artist.

Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.

An artist, to achieve anything in art, has to finally do the thing that nobody else wants to do and nobody else has thought to do.

Great photography is always on the edge of failure.

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don't take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn't been seen before?

Artists are free to push boundaries to make art. But when pushing boundaries is their only aim, the result is usually bad art.

A great artist has to be ready to fail.

But failure has to be an option in art and in exploration - because it's a leap of faith. And no important endeavor that required innovation was done without risk. You have to be willing to take those risks.