Danish director Lars Von Trier is in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction but fears his sobriety will destroy his talent.

The Nymphomaniac moviemaker candidly revealed that nearly all his films were created under the influence and he would drink a bottle of vodka a day to allow him to enter a "parallel world" in which he could be creative.

He admitted that his hit film Dogville was written in 12 days while on a drug binge whereas Nymphomaniac was written when he was sober and took 18 months.

The revealing interview is the first Von Trier has given since he took a vow of silence following a torrent of controversy over comments he made about Adolf Hitler.

He tells Danish newspaper Politiken, "I don't know if I can make any more films, and that worries me. There is no creative expression of artistic value that has ever been produced by ex-drunkards and ex-drug addicts. Who the hell would bother with a Rolling Stones without booze or with a Jimi Hendrix without heroin?"