100 Quotes by Yorgos Lanthimos

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

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.

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

I don't make long-term plans, for sure.

I enjoy sometimes focusing on a character in a scene that's not actually doing the main action or the talking.

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

In any case, I would never make a film that was only one thing. Even if it's my warmest, most romantic film, I still want it to have the more cynical view of things, showing the irony and absurdity of things that we consider normal.

All of us have been through relationships; there have been periods of time when we've been single. It's something that everyone experiences. It's a matter of making that observation and then start to ask questions about it: Why is it like that? And why do we feel that? And why are we organized this way? Isn't there any other way?

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