Harmony Korine

HK: To me, the most beautiful thing in the world is an abandoned parking lot and a soiled sofa on the edge of the parking lot with a street lamp off to the side. America seems like a series of abandoned parking lots, streetlights, and abandoned sofas.

I never understood directors who work with storyboards and who stick to the scripts. It’s like the suburbs, all your houses look the same, and I’m sure they’re comfortable, but I don’t wanna fucking live with you. I don’t want to live in such neighborhoods. I wanted to throw some grenades in there and make things exciting.

So we used a bunch of different types of video and then we transferred all the video to Super 8 film and then from Super 8 to 35mm film. I wanted this kind of swirled color.

I told him without hesitation that I’ll take the next fight over and I’ll stab him in the fucking throat. I said, “I’ll cut your fucking head off ’cause I didn’t grow up as a rich kid playing that whole game. I’m not a part of that and the work means so much more and if I can’t show it, it’s not only a betrayal to me, it’s a betrayal to all those people in the film because these are people that gave themselves to the film.”

“I was born Harmony and it was weird because when I was a little kid, I was picked on so much that when I was thirteen I changed my name to Harmful. I thought it was a tougher name, so I had it legally changed. And then, I don’t know, it just didn’t seem to catch on, so . . . legally, my name is still Harmful, but I just said I’ll go back to Harmony.

So I used AIDS as you might in a horror film, like the shark in Jaws: AIDS is going to get you.

You know when I knew when it was real? I remember Gus Van Sant walked into Larry’s apartment. I was like, “OK, this shit’s legit.”

I’ll tell you how obsessive I was: I would literally change my answering machine message like once every hour at my grandma’s house. No one would ever call me. But I kept changing it. I would write a poem or sing a song or record something off the television. Then I’d stick it in the answering machine and hope someone would call it. I can’t explain to you . . . it was wild, man. I felt like I was around all these influences at that time and I was voracious. There will never be a time that will compare with that.