Ingmar Bergman Quotes

I'm planning, you see, to try to confine myself to the truth. That's hard for an old, inveterate fantasy martyr and liar who has never hesitated to give truth the form he felt the occasion demanded.

~ Ingmar Bergman

Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.

~ Ingmar Bergman

I make all my decisions on intuition. But then, I must know why I made that decision. I throw a spear into the darkness. That is intuition. Then I must send an army into the darkness to find the spear. That is intellect.

~ Ingmar Bergman

Jöns: But feel, to the very end, the triumph of being alive!

~ Ingmar Bergman

One has to manage alone as best one can. (Karin Bergman)

~ Ingmar Bergman

Today the individual has become the highest form, and the greatest bane, of artistic creation. The smallest wound or pain of the ego is examined under a microscope as if it were of eternal importance. The artist considers his isolation, his subjectivity, his individualism almost holy. Thus we finally gather in one large pen, where we stand and bleat about our loneliness without listening to each other and without realizing that we are smothering each other to death. The individualists stare into each other's eyes and yet deny each other's existence. We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster's whim and the purest ideal.

~ Ingmar Bergman

Here, in my solitude, I have the feeling that I contain too much humanity.

~ Ingmar Bergman

One will probably have to manage alone as best one can. (Karin Bergman)

~ Ingmar Bergman

Minus: Papa, I'm scared. When I was hugging Karin in the boat, reality burst open. Do you understand?David: I do.Minus: Reality burst open, and I tumbled out. It's like a dream. Anything can happen. Anything.David: I know.Minus: I can't live in this new world.David: Yes, you can. But you must have something to hold on to.Minus: What would that be? A god? Give me proof of God. You can't.David: Yes, I can. But you have to listen carefully.Minus: Yes, I need to listen.David: I can only give you a hint of my own hope. It is to know that love exists as something real in the human world.Minus: A special kind of love, I suppose?David: All kinds, Minus. The highest and the lowest, the most absurd and the most sublime. All kinds of love.Minus: And the longing for love?David: Longing and denial. Trust and distrust.Minus: Then love is the proof?David: I don't know if love is proof of God's existence, or if love is God himself.Minus: To you, love and God are the same thing.David: That thought helps me in my emptiness and despair.Minus: Tell me more, Papa.David: Suddenly the emptiness turns into abundance, and despair into life. It's like a reprieve, Minus, from a death sentence.Minus: Papa... If it is as you say, then Karin is surrounded by God, since we love her.David: Yes.Minus: Can that help her?David: I believe so.Minus: ... Papa, would you mind if I go for a run?David: Off you go. I'll make dinner. See you in an hour.Minus: ... Papa spoke to me.

~ Ingmar Bergman

Death: When next we meet, the hour will strike for you and your friends.Antonius Block: And will you reveal your secrets?Death: I have no secrets.Antonius Block: So do you know nothing?Death: I am unknowing.

~ Ingmar Bergman

No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does straight to our emotions deep into the twilight room of the soul.

~ Ingmar Bergman

I hope I never get so old I get religious.

~ Ingmar Bergman

My pictures are always part of my thinking, and my emotions, tensions, dreams, desires.

~ Ingmar Bergman

From an early age onward, it was said that 'Ingmar has no sense of humor.'

~ Ingmar Bergman

I'm very, very lazy. I love to sit in a chair and look out the window and do nothing.

~ Ingmar Bergman

Writing is boring, very boring, and it takes so much patience.

~ Ingmar Bergman

I hate to travel. I don't go anywhere.

~ Ingmar Bergman

We didn't know that Mother had gone through a passionate love affair or that Father suffered from severe depression. Mother was preparing to break out of her marriage, Father threatening to take his own life.

~ Ingmar Bergman

The anger and the creativity are so closely intertwined with me, and there's plenty of anger left.

~ Ingmar Bergman