165 Quotes by Michael Haneke

Classicism becomes avant-garde when everyone else is doing their utmost to develop new stylistic forms. I think it’s healthy to return to classical forms.

There are really two types of laughter on the part of the spectator. There is the laughter of recognition – which means seeing things you’re familiar with and laughing at yourself. But there’s also hysterical laughter – a way of dealing with the things we see that upset us.

And I don’t believe that children are innocent. In fact, no one seriously believes that. Just go to a playground and watch the kids playing in the sandbox! The romantic notion of the sweet child is simply the parents projecting their own wishes.

Never say no. It always depends on what’s possible. I don’t care so much where it is; it’s what I want to do that matters.

I’ve never let producers tell me what to do. Even when I was making television, I always did what I wanted to do, and if I couldn’t, I didn’t do it. It was a freedom that, these days, young directors starting out don’t have.

If I’m reading a book that doesn’t leave me with questions, moving questions, that I feel confronted with, then for me it’s a waste of time. I don’t want to read a book that simply confirms what I already know.

It’s a fact that people who are in a weakened position, whether physically or mentally, have this perception of the outer world as threatening. Everything that is unexpected or unknown is seen as a potential danger.

You’ll see more violence in any television crime series than you will in my films Art is there to have a stimulating effect, if it earns its name. You have to be honest, that’s the only thing.

I’m far more relaxed with German. I’m a control freak. I like to know exactly who’s saying and doing what.