Quote Of The Day By David Fincher: '...I've Maintained That, That's The Foundation Of My Career.'

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David Fincher is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers working today, having broken into the industry by directing some of the best music videos of all time for artists like Aerosmith, Billy Idol, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. Fincher grew up in San Anselmo, California, and was even a neighbor of legendary "Star Wars" director George Lucas. He has expressed a lifelong love of filmmaking, and when he reached high school age, he moved to Ashland, Oregon, and became involved in the theater program, directing plays and designing sets and lighting plots for the school. He also worked as a non-union projectionist at the Varsity Theatre and worked as a production assistant at the KOBI news station in Medford, Oregon.

Fincher made his feature directorial debut with the polarizing "Alien 3," but he made cinema history three years later when he unleashed "Se7en" into the world, solidifying his voice as the next big thing. In the years that followed, Fincher's signature style of stories boasting intriguing protagonists, cool, desaturated color palettes, precise frame symmetry, and psychological tension has made him a favorite director among cinephiles everywhere and earned him three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, four Primetime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe.

But arguably, it's the dark, taboo subject matter at the center of almost all his stories that keeps audiences coming back. He's a maestro at dissecting the uncomfortable aspects of human psychology, and a famous statement he made during a bonus featurette called "Men Who Hate Women" on the Blu-ray for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is our quote of the day.

"'I think people are perverts," David Fincher said. "I've maintained that, that's the foundation of my career."

Back when every major Blu-ray release was bursting with special features, behind-the-scenes looks, and interviews with the creative teams that brought movies to life, featurettes like "Men Who Hate Women" — which gets its name from the original Swedish title "Män som hatar kvinnor" — from "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" were a major incentive to buy physical media. Without knowing the origin of Fincher's quote, the statement alone is already quite provocative, but considering its relation to a film like "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," it feels like finding a key that unlocks the secret to his entire filmography.

Fincher is a filmmaker whose films like "Se7en," "Fight Club," "Zodiac," and even "Gone Girl" explore the dark depths of masculinity, and depicting the misogyny often at the center of these men's worldviews has come under fire for decades, and that includes "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." A remake of the Swedish film of the same name, the story concerns a disgraced financial reporter, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), who is hired to solve a 40-year-old murder and enlists the help of a pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). Together, the two uncover a web of corruption, and Fincher had a critical and commercial hit on his hands.

And it's because his thoughts on the moviegoing public ring true — everyone is a pervert in some way, and it's reflected in the media we consume.

The average person hears the word "pervert" and immediately assumes David Fincher is talking about sexual deviancy of some form (and that may be partially accurate), but perversion exists outside of carnal interest. "Pervert" is both a noun and a verb, a word that can describe who a person is or what they are capable of doing. In the context of the special features for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," Fincher explains that people are drawn to a film like the one he made, and to all the films in his oeuvre, because, deep down, we relate to these perverted characters. To pervert is to corrupt, misuse, misinterpret, or deviate from the traditional moral compass established by the status quo. None of us is perfect, and therefore we see ourselves and our experiences better reflected in the darkness of his work, whether we admit it or not.

Because once you've accepted your particular type of perversion, obsession quickly follows. For some, it's something we wholly embrace and allow it to become a part of our personality (see: true crime fanatics), whereas others are so terrified of their own interests that they dedicate their lives to publicly distancing themselves or avoiding what they know to be true, so as to not accept the truth that they, like the rest of us, are a pervert too. And in that regard, Fincher wins over both ends of the spectrum. Those who know the truth proudly embrace his works as mirrors to the world around us, while those who run from it are still possessed by the allure of the looking glass, even if they refuse to step inside.

And it's made him one of the most popular and critically acclaimed directors in history.

• "People will say, 'There are a million ways to shoot a scene,' but I don't think so. I think there're two, maybe. And the other one is wrong."

• "I don't think of myself as difficult. We're expected to do stuff that's awesome. That means we're going to have to push each other."

• "My idea of professionalism is probably a lot of people's idea of obsessive."

• "I like characters who don't change, who don't learn from their mistakes."

• "I think intelligence is totally subjective; it's like sexiness."