Ingmar Bergman Quotes
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In 'The Serpent's Egg,' I created a Berlin which no one recognized, not even I.
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I dream about doing a film about once a week.
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If you have a faith, if you've some deep conviction, whether you're a Nazi or a Communist or what the hell else you are - then you can sacrifice yourself and others to your faith. But from the moment you've no faith - from that moment you live in a deep inner confusion - from then on you're exposed to what Strindberg calls 'the powers'.
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I don't watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry... and miserable. I think it's awful.
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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.
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I am normally afraid of birds and have never dreamt of any bird in my life.
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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.
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I was bloody ill-tempered when I was young.
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Self-portraiture is something one should never get involved in, since it is wrong to lie even though one endeavours to tell the truth.
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My education was very tough.
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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.
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When you're as chaotic as I am, you need a very firm structure in your life.
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I am extremely suspicious of dreams, apparitions and visions, both in literature and in films and plays. Perhaps it's because mental excesses of this sort smack too much of being 'arranged.'
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On a personal level, there are many people who have meant a great deal to me. My father and mother were certainly of vital importance, not only in themselves but because they created a world for me to revolt against.
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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.
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My pictures are always part of my thinking, and my emotions, tensions, dreams, desires.
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For me he's just a hoax. It's empty. It's not interesting. It's dead. Citizen Kane, which I have a copy of - is all the critics' darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it's a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie's got is absolutely unbelievable.
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If I don't create, I don't exist.
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People ask what are my intentions with my films - my aims. It is a difficult and dangerous question, and I usually give an evasive answer: I try to tell the truth about the human condition, the truth as I see it. This answer seems to satisfy everyone, but it is not quite correct.
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I was booed at the premiere of 'Miss Julie,' a remarkably stimulating experience.
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When I'm on Faro, I'm never lonely.
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Now I want to make it plain that 'The Virgin Spring' must be regarded as an aberration. It's touristic, a lousy imitation of Kurosawa.
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I am forever living in my childhood.
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From an early age onward, it was said that 'Ingmar has no sense of humor.'