Challenging Themes Quotes

Lars Von Trier is a genius. Every film he makes is so honest and powerful.

It's very hard to deal with true subject matter, especially when you're writing about such weighty issues.

I felt like challenging myself and challenging my readers with something darker and heavier. I don't know how to explain it, because I'm not a political person. I have two political stories, and that's it: 'Human Diastrophism' and 'Poison River.'

Everyone asks me, 'Why do you choose such subversive or shocking themes?' but when I'm alone in my office, I'm not like, 'OK I'm going to shock.' I want to write about a character who fascinates me, someone who I don't understand.

With American Morons, Glen Hirshberg confidently shoulders his way through the generational pack to claim his rightful place on the summit. These stories are smart, challenging, ripe with feeling, expansive in every way: Horror as it should be writ, and as only the best and most expressive can write it.

As artists, it’s our job to delve into the uncomfortable, the difficult and the challenging.

Why write if this too easy activity of pushing a pen across paper is not given a certain bullfighting risk and we do not approach dangerous, agile and two-horned topics?

Any director who's willing to be brave not only in terms of subject matter but also in terms of being emotional and moving you is what inspires me.

You have some great films every year, but for the most part, no one is making films with heavy messages or themes. People are afraid of doing that.

I've done a lot of films that all have been pretty edgy.

Sometimes the darker the work, the more fun you can have.

Many people tell me that they don 't know what to feel when they finish one of my books because the story was dark, or complicated, or strange. But while they were reading it, they were inside my world and they were happy. That's good.

I like an interesting movie even if it's controversial or offensive, depending on your taste.

'Perfect Sense' is an extremely serious film, and I am an extremely serious film-maker who is trying to explore the medium in original and interesting ways.

A lot of independent films offer a harsh reality check.

With 'Django Unchained,' when you're dealing with slavery, it's like a gymnastics routine with the highest amount of difficulty. Quentin Tarantino is not going to do a movie that's just going to lay there and be safe. There's going to be twists and flips.

Transparent' does a good job of pushing the envelope in a real way, not in a sensational or salacious way.

Starz is a network that's going for the content that's extremely honest and pushing the envelope and is provocative.

There is no reason why challenging themes and engaging stories have to be mutually exclusive - in fact, each can fuel the other.

I owe thanks to a thoughtful, sophisticated readership hungry for challenging subject matter, for honest portrayals of parenthood, and for fiction whose meaning is neither obvious nor morally pat.

I happen to still like really dark, dramatic, fractured characters. They're the reason I got into movies.

My movies are not movies of answers but of questions.

I have always wanted to work with Steven R. Monroe, and when I read his script, I was blown away! I think 'Complacent' hits a nerve that people try so desperately to avoid, which is what I love about Steven's work.

There is no reason why challenging themes and engaging stories have to be mutually exclusive - in fact, each can fuel the other. As a filmmaker, I want to entertain people first and foremost. If out of that comes a greater awareness and understanding of a time or a circumstance, then the hope is that change can happen.

Drama asks some uncomfortable questions at times... It goes to pretty dark places.