David Fincher Quotes

'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.

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

I still want to get some empathy from the audience, even though she's pathetic.

I don't want people leaving the theater depressed after my movies. I want them angry.

If you put anger in the writing, then it's like an actor crying on stage. The audience will not cry with the actor and in some way inure itself against the emotion.

I want to put concepts in front of people that make them laugh or smile or even hate what I do. I'm not interested in just putting clothes in stores.

The audience likes their emotions to be touched. They want to laugh and cry and feel good.

I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.

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

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.

A film with an untidy plot cannot grip the audience and define their emotional response.

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

No one - apart from my agent, perhaps - should leave one of my shows in tears.

I enjoy being on stage with other artists. I have a chance to watch and see people responding to the other artists songs. I get to see how people are affected by the music.

If someone gets up and walks out of the movie, it means it's really affected them.

I wouldn't say that I'm actually trying to cause chills in the audience, but certainly my goal is to, at the very least, effect a physiological response - at the most, to effect some sort of state change, ideally, in the audience.

Comedy is harder, because if there's no laughs, it's pretty bad. But drama, if there's no reaction, you can say, 'Well, it's not their cup of tea. Maybe it's too heavy for the audience.'

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.

I want to shake people up so bad, that when they leave a nightclub where I've performed, I just want them to be to pieces.

I'm well aware that no matter how big of a jerk I am, some people will cheer me, and no matter what I do, some people will boo me, and that's fine. I just need to elicit emotion. That's all I care about.

You can't control how an audience responds to something. It's up to them.

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

With 'Hannibal,' I just really want people to feel something.

I think, as an actress, it is amazing to shock your audiences.