And if there was one title that could be applied to all my films, it would be ‘Civil War’ – not civil war in the way we know it, but the daily war that goes on between us all. Michael Haneke Read Quote
My father and I had a good relationship, it was very relaxed. He had a lot of humour. He looked a little bit like me, although he had no beard. He had the appearance of a very elegant British-looking man. Michael Haneke Read Quote
My mother as a young girl went out with a young SS officer and she didn’t really know what was going on – she just liked the uniform. When he told her about the things that he did, she was disgusted and broke up with him. Michael Haneke Read Quote
It’s unbearable when someone changes around you. Just imagine that your life partner changes, then it is difficult to cope with. Or your mother. Or your father. They were strong and now they’re like a baby – it’s not so funny. Michael Haneke Read Quote
Of course, we avoid death. To know something is inevitable is one thing. To accept, to truly feel it… that’s different. Michael Haneke Read Quote
To me, it’s far more efficient to mobilize the imagination. It’s far more efficient to hear a creaking step, for example, than to see the face of a monster, which usually looks ridiculous, and where you know that the blood is ketchup. Michael Haneke Read Quote
It’s harder to write a story with just two people in a room than with 50 characters. Michael Haneke Read Quote
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. Michael Haneke Read Quote
I never suffered from the absence of a father. On the contrary, as a child I was more inclined to see men as a disturbing factor. It made things difficult for me when I started working as a director. Michael Haneke Read Quote
I think it’s a little simplistic to explain a work through the psychology of its author. In other words, that Haneke has emotional problems, so I don’t have to take his films seriously. By using this argument, the viewer retreats from the challenges of the film. Michael Haneke Read Quote
