Top 111 Yorgos Lanthimos Quotes

Of course you can’t do anything completely original.

‘The Lobster,’ at some point, was my most accessible film. Then I made ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer,’ which turned out to be not as accessible as ‘The Lobster.’ It was the film I wanted to make and the story I wanted to tell.

All the talented and smart actors, they get it: as soon as it comes out of their mouth, they know if it’s right or wrong. If the writing has a particular voice, they get it, and they can hit it.

Telling a story is the way of exploring so many different things – human behavior, society, whatever existence.

I made three films in Greece, and they’re made under very specific, very limited conditions.

I just think it’s interesting to start a dialogue.

Everybody has a love/hate relationship with their own country.

I want all the mistakes to be mine, and I want to take responsibility for everything even if I fail. Whatever the project is, I need to have the final say.

Because we’re brought into the world or educated in a certain way, we’re trained to accept the world in a certain way.

You tend to be more attentive when you shoot on film because, you know, it costs more, and everybody needs to be focused when you’re filming something. Everybody considers it something valuable and precious, so everybody’s focused.

Being extremely honest is quite funny. But there’s no recipe or concept that I can bring up that fully defines what we find humorous. It’s instinctive.

I haven’t been a director-for-hire for any project. I work with people who appreciate that, understand that, and want to work that way.

I think I do things that are more common in theatre.

Personal relationships, mood, chance, or anything like that can actually affect people’s decisions, and when they’re in a position of power, their capriciousness can affect the fate of a nation.

I am calm but on the outside, mostly. When I’m on a film set, the stress is so humongous that I’m dying inside – I’m extremely stressed, but I do try, and… well, I don’t try. I think it’s my natural reaction to not externalize things.

All the talented and smart actors, they get it: as soon as it comes out of their mouth, they know if it’s right or wrong. If the writing has a particular voice, they get it, and they can hit it.

As an audience member myself, I love to be in a position where I’m trying to figure out what I am supposed to feel or if what I’m feeling is appropriate or not.

I never thought that I would ever actually get to make films. Being from Greece, it wasn’t really a reality.

I think children are really violent with each other often.

‘The Lobster’ is very particular, and we did need to create a very specific world with specific rules so the whole premise would work.

Even today, I’m not sure why I make films or what makes me want films. I think it’s other people’s films. Whenever I see a really great film, I think, ‘I want to make a film like that.’ And then I never do.

I just try and decide what I’m interested in and what excites me. I don’t worry about how it’s going to be perceived.

The most important thing is to allow gaps and openings for people to make up their own minds – I don’t want my film to be pretending to have one important truth to tell anyone.

I always expect people to be torn when they see one of my films and divided in some way.

Yeah, it shouldn’t be an issue. Stories about women, about men, about homosexuals, about heterosexuals. We shouldn’t point at what it is.

There’s much more activity in England than in Greece. Or at least there’s a lot more development, which obviously brings another set of problems.

I think there’s all these unknown things you can tap into when you just leave things open, and nothing is forbidden. Then you allow yourself to mold that thing that has been created by freedom and spontaneity and flexibility. That’s why I avoid limiting performances of actors and characters.

I think human relationships – the whole thing is cruel. It’s very difficult.

Having rules means that sometimes people break them, and that means punishment.

It’s hard not to be political.

I am calm but on the outside, mostly. When I’m on a film set, the stress is so humongous that I’m dying inside – I’m extremely stressed, but I do try, and… well, I don’t try. I think it’s my natural reaction to not externalize things.

I used to be quite negative about going back to Greece and making something, but there is a certain kind of freedom that I’ve experienced while I was making films in Greece that is hard to replicate elsewhere.

Most acting is very melodramatic. It’s not what you see in people.

I always expect people to be torn when they see one of my films and divided in some way.

It was always hard to make films in Greece, but making them with friends made it possible.

Starting in Greece, you couldn’t really say, ‘I’m going to become a film-maker.’ A 15-year-old boy in Greece in the ’80s and ’90s? There was nothing like that happening.

I made three films in Greece, and they’re made under very specific, very limited conditions.

I’ve played around with the notion of making a series on the premise of ‘Alps’ because it’s one of the films no one saw.

In general, I like contradictions and complex situations.

We were fortunate enough to shoot ‘Alps’ – write the script and shoot it – right after ‘Dogtooth’ premiered in Cannes. So we didn’t just sit around and wait to figure out what to do because ‘Dogtooth’ was successful. We just wanted to make another film fast, so we just went ahead and did it.

I don’t have time to read much. I’m trying to read ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ again, for a year now – I keep getting halfway, and then there’s a lot of work, and I forget it, and I have to go back to the beginning.

I never knew that I would even be making English-language films.

It was always hard to make films in Greece, but making them with friends made it possible.

I just try and decide what I’m interested in and what excites me. I don’t worry about how it’s going to be perceived.

The actors bring their own stuff and thoughts, and most of the time, I don’t want to know what they are. It allows me to have more distance and observe what they’re doing without having the knowledge of what they have in their minds, so I can see clearly how that feels to me.

I think human relationships – the whole thing is cruel. It’s very difficult.

Rebellion is not always the right thing. Following the rules is not always the right thing. You have to think for yourself and identify the things that do not work for you.

I haven’t been a director-for-hire for any project. I work with people who appreciate that, understand that, and want to work that way.

I find it very interesting to keep people uncertain about what is what and figure it out as they go.

Whenever a film doesn’t follow to the letter the preset strict conventional rules of today’s commercial cinema, it’s considered weird.

I work very physically. I don’t like to intellectualize too much about what we’re doing, or analyze it.

I always loved films, and when I decided to go to film school, it was with the excuse that I would go into making commercials, because that would be a proper profession, and people wouldn’t think I was crazy.

I think it’s been obvious from the beginning that my projects are not going to be something that people already have in mind. You can’t be thinking about such things when you create something.

I just think it’s interesting to start a dialogue.

I wouldn’t be making films if I just wanted to express some specific ideas; then I would be writing essays or something.

By employing a certain sense of humor, you essentially get more serious about things and show conflict more effectively than if you were overly dramatic or only violent because that’s a one-way approach that just forces audiences to watch something appalling.

Of course I know what works for me and what kind of tone I want my films to have.

There are things to love about filmmaking in Greece. People are generous: If you get along well with others, the people around you will give more than they might otherwise be willing to give, more than they’re supposed to.

I’m interested in many different things. I guess I just want to evolve.

When I look at my films, all I see is everything that went wrong.

There are various ways of delivering some kind of truth, so I try to find the style or the way that I find more effective.

I think I do things that are more common in theatre.

I find it very interesting to keep people uncertain about what is what and figure it out as they go.

Provocative… I used to be defensive about it, but in the end, I realised it’s exactly right. It’s what we’re trying to do – to provoke thought and discussion and, you know, shake people up to start thinking about things in a different way. I’m interested in messing with what they think is the norm.

It’s hard not to be political.