I've never been a frustrated person because I learnt at a very young age that the frustration I had inside of me had to do with creativity and the ability to transform that into action. I realized very early my restlessness had to be channelled into things I could do.

Johan Renck

I wish I had been born 20 years earlier, so I could have been in the movie business in the 1970s.

Johan Renck

I've always been interested in photography. I remember when I was about 14, I spent an entire summer selling lottery tickets in some little booth so I could make enough money to buy an Olympus camera.

Johan Renck

I wish I was really talented in music because then I would be doing it. I felt that I could write a decent song, but it was a big struggle.

Johan Renck

I hate comedy. I don't even like comedy at all.

Johan Renck

The darkest aspects of imperialism are still very much prevalent in many cultures around the world; hundreds of years later, and we have a collective responsibility to encounter the deeds of our past.

Johan Renck

Building a cast is a card house. They lean on each other, provide for each other, and take from each other.

Johan Renck

Whenever I'm making a film, it has to be timeless.

Johan Renck

They say don't meet your heroes, but when it comes to Bowie, he truly is the most brilliant person I've ever met.

Johan Renck

I started out as musician and recording artist but quite soon started to do my own videos. One thing led to another, and soon I was making videos for a living.

Johan Renck

I'm very impatient, and I'm very curious.

Johan Renck

In the early 1990s, I was signed as a singer to the same label as Robyn. She was in her early teens, and I was in my twenties, so we didn't hang out, but our paths crossed so many times that we slowly got to know each other and became friends.

Johan Renck

I like being out on a limb and not know what we're doing and why: just deal with it, the mayhem, you know?

Johan Renck

When you're young, and you're doing stuff, you're making music, directing, making art, it's all future directed. You want to change stuff onward. And when you get older - this applies to me - you think about the things you want to do and how it will be perceived by your children one day.

Johan Renck

Brits are very, very expressive, whereas the Soviet and Eastern European way is much more stern, stone-faced. Vladimir Putin-esque in some way.

Johan Renck

Being a police officer in America is a tough job.

Johan Renck

All my close friends are non-conformist. To say 'misfits' sounds bad, but there is something positive about being a little on the outside - it gives you an interesting perspective on things - and I think that's something Robyn and I share.

Johan Renck

I'm a huge Crowley fan, I've always been. I tried to make a movie on his life a few years ago, but we didn't manage to put it together.

Johan Renck

Working with friends isn't easy - the nature of an artistic project means it's about two strong visions colliding and a bit of mental wrestling.

Johan Renck

I was a huge fan of this band called Sparks. It was a pretty good inauguration to music, since their music is quite complex.

Johan Renck

I love Crowley for being an audacious man at certain point in time. I think he's greatly misunderstood. He was a good guy, but he was portrayed as an evil man, and he wasn't.

Johan Renck