When you finish a film, you never want to see it again.
— Ingmar Bergman
I am normally afraid of birds and have never dreamt of any bird in my life.
I am very much aware of my own double self. The well-known one is very under control; everything is planned and very secure. The unknown one can be very unpleasant. I think this side is responsible for all the creative work - he is in touch with the child. He is not rational; he is impulsive and extremely emotional.
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.
Aging is not uncomplicated. Creativity is an extraordinary help against destructive demons.
My education was very tough.
I was booed at the premiere of 'Miss Julie,' a remarkably stimulating experience.
Sometimes, I probably do mourn the fact that I no longer make films.
I have a feeling of complete balance. The sea, the house, the loneliness, the light. Everything is clearer. Much more precise. I have the feeling that I am living on a limit, and I'm crossing that limit sometimes.
I think that for some time now I have been living with an anxiety which has had no tangible cause. It has been like having a toothache, without the conscientious dentist having been able to find anything wrong with the tooth or with the person as a whole.
I am forever living in my childhood.
The anger and the creativity are so closely intertwined with me, and there's plenty of anger left.
Writing is boring, very boring, and it takes so much patience.
I make all my decisions on intuition.
The only thing I consider appalling would be to suddenly become a vegetable and a burden on other people. A soul slowly dying out, trapped in a body in which the insides gradually sabotage me - that, I think, would be terrifying.
I had a bad conscience until I discovered that having a bad conscience about something so gravely serious as leaving your children is an affectation, a way of achieving a little suffering that can't for a moment be equal to the suffering you've caused.
Not a day has gone by in my life when I haven't thought about death.
There is something joyous about not talking.
When I was young, I was extremely scared of dying. But now I think it a very, very wise arrangement. It's like a light that is extinguished. Not very much to make a fuss about.
There hasn't been anyone with whom I can discuss my scripts. Even when the film is done, there is no one I can show it to who gives his sincere opinion. There is silence.
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.
I was bloody ill-tempered when I was young.
My pictures are always part of my thinking, and my emotions, tensions, dreams, desires.
I have always appreciated the honest brutality of the international film world. One need never doubt one's worth in the market. Mine was zero.
If I don't create, I don't exist.
I have such difficulty calming down - my stomach, my head, reality, everything. That is the reason I live in Faro.
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.'
From an early age onward, it was said that 'Ingmar has no sense of humor.'
We always regret that we did not ask our parents more, really get to know them while they were alive.
I'm very, very lazy. I love to sit in a chair and look out the window and do nothing.
I don't watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry... and miserable. I think it's awful.
When I'm on Faro, I'm never lonely.
I usually say I left puberty at 58.
The demons are innumerable, appear at the most inconvenient times, and create panic and terror. But I have learnt that if I can master the negative forces and harness them to my chariot, then they can work to my advantage.
If I didn't have my profession, I think I would be sitting in a nuthouse. But I have been unceasingly at work, and this has been very healthy for me. So I had no need for therapy.
I was very much in love with my mother. She was a very warm and a very cold woman. When she was warm, I tried to come close to her. But she could be very cold and rejecting.
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.
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.
Life wasn't about freeing up human souls. It was about creating obedient slaves in the hierarchical construction of the society - with God at the top, then the king and then the father.
If I let myself go, nothing will get done.
In 'The Serpent's Egg,' I created a Berlin which no one recognized, not even I.
There are so many books I want to read. Difficult books. That's what I intend to do and what I'm longing for.
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.
When you're as chaotic as I am, you need a very firm structure in your life.
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.
I dream about doing a film about once a week.
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.
When we came out from the Elysee palace, there was a gigantic limousine waiting for us and four police on motorcycles. It is probably one of the few times I have experienced my fame. I thought it was so fantastic that I laughed to the point of shouting.
Mother was actually a great doer and organizer. All the special occasions were directed by mother.
I haven't put an ounce of effort into my families. I never have.
