226 Quotes by Peter Greenaway

I really, sincerely believe that one should trust the work, and not the author.

Creation, to me, is to try to orchestrate the universe to understand what surrounds us. Even if, to accomplish that, we use all sorts of strategems which in the end prove completely incapable of staving off chaos.

I have often thought it was very arrogant to suppose you could make a film for anybody but yourself.

There is visual illiteracy with text-oriented films like bloody 'Harry Potter' and 'Lord of the Rings.'...

The Sistine Chapel is an extraordinary work of education - it lays out all the early books of the Bible.

Film is such an extraordinary rich medium which can handle so many different modes of operation, combining together in the same place all these extraordinary disciplines which may be executed in their own right - music, writing, picture making of all kinds, and I often feel that some filmmakers make films with one eye closed and two hands tied behind their backs.

I obviously irritate people. I obviously antagonise them.

Anybody who writes a diary insists it must be read by someone else.

As you probably know, I'm often accused of intellectual exhibitionism and all forms of elitism. Although I can understand this point of view, it's a rather wasted argument because, if we regard areas of information as being elite and therefore somehow not usable, it means our centre-ground of activity becomes very, very impoverished.