Jenna Malone was a very important piece of how the film [The Neon Demon] turned out. Nicolas Winding Refn More Quotes by Nicolas Winding Refn More Quotes From Nicolas Winding Refn The world needs change, change needs an activity. It has to be planted by a thought. Nicolas Winding Refn need-a-change world needs Understanding one's own power is more interesting than someone being given something powerful. Nicolas Winding Refn powerful understanding interesting We have basic urges all the time. They just manifest themselves in different scenarios, and we have to turn those weaknesses into our strengths. Art is very much about making your weaknesses your strength. Nicolas Winding Refn weakness different art The power of art is as powerful as weapons of mass destruction; it's just where war destroys, art inspires. But in order to inspire, you need to react to it. And, if it doesn't penetrate your mind, you can't react to it. Nicolas Winding Refn powerful war art The future is not about what you do, it's about what you stand for. Nicolas Winding Refn Love comes from the strangest places. Nicolas Winding Refn The fairy tale always takes place in worlds that are between, unidentifiable. Nicolas Winding Refn tales fairy-tale world The act of creation can be an extreme violent experience. Nicolas Winding Refn extremes violent creation How can creativity be bad? You can have, "I liked it" or "I didn't like it," but, in the end, it's an individual experience. How can you even begin to define that? I find that sometimes extremely arrogant and counter-productive. Nicolas Winding Refn arrogant creativity sometimes In the end, self-indulgence is very much about your ego and your vanity and your own id. The more you can indulge in it, the more pleasurable it becomes. And then when it feeds out, it's able to penetrate the mind and create a reaction. Nicolas Winding Refn vanity indulge-in self In "Drive," there's a heightened male edge. In "Only God Forgives," it was almost crawling back into the womb of the mother. And now with "The Neon Demon," being reborn as a 16-year-old girl. Nicolas Winding Refn girl mother years Man's fear of sexuality is the basis of all horror from the male perspective. Nicolas Winding Refn males perspective men Beauty is on one level pure surface, and on the other hand, it's the most complex subject that we can touch upon because it says everything about us as people. It's a subject we very quickly begin to argue about. I think that's so interesting. Nicolas Winding Refn hands people thinking I've been trying to get away from physical violence; it's too easy; it doesn't satisfy me artistically to work with it. Dramatic violence is much more interesting, but it's much more difficult. Nicolas Winding Refn violence trying interesting I certainly believe that creativity must be an experience. If I'm to steal time away from people, we should give them something to react to. Nicolas Winding Refn creativity believe people I don't know if power seduces less or more. I think power is a constant evolving mechanism that, since the dawn of time, on one level corrupts and on another level does not. But I think, no matter what, mutates. Nicolas Winding Refn dawn doe thinking I also believe on a practical level, if you're taking time away from people, besides entertaining them, I think it's important that there's something to react to. Nicolas Winding Refn believe people thinking My movie [The Neon Demon] is a hyper-version of the obsession with beauty. As this crazy obsession grows, longevity does not. Everything seems to become younger and younger. The girls and people around them cannibalize themselves. Nicolas Winding Refn crazy girl people I've done collaborations in all my movies, and I think it's part of what I enjoy about the process. This kind of intimacy that you create. Because it becomes very intimate. Nicolas Winding Refn collaboration done thinking I think the idea of individualism has become more dominating in our society. You can even see it by our political system: how people vote, the job situation, the sociological evolution that's happening, what's happening in the Middle East and so forth. Nicolas Winding Refn jobs ideas thinking