I know that I shall have lost to the jungle if I take a weak moral standpoint or relax my mental punctiliousness. I have therefore come to a certain belief which is based on three powerful effective commandments: THOU SHALT BE ENTERTAINING AT ALL TIMES. THOU SHALT OBEY THY ARTISTIC CONSCIENCE AT ALL TIMES. THOU SHALT MAKE EACH FILM AS IF IT WERE THY LAST.

Ingmar Bergman

More Quotes by Ingmar Bergman
Categorized in : Powerful Three Relax
More Quotes From Ingmar Bergman
I am living permanently in my dream, from which I make brief fora... by Ingmar Bergman

I am living permanently in my dream, from which I make brief forays into reality.

Ingmar Bergman
dream reality

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
film-directing twilight art
Here, in my solitude, I have the feeling that I contain too much... by Ingmar Bergman

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

Ingmar Bergman
solitude humanity feelings

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
design army decision

When you feel perpetually unmotivated, you start questioning your existence in an unhealthy way; everything becomes a pseudo intellectual question you have no interest in responding whatsoever. This whole process becomes your very skin and it does not merely affect you; it actually defines you. So, you see yourself as a shadowy figure unworthy of developing interest, unworthy of wondering about the world - profoundly unworthy in every sense and deeply absent in your very presence.

Ingmar Bergman
unmotivated skins intellectual

My discovery of Tarkovsky's first film was like a miracle. Suddenly, I found myself standing at the door of a room the keys of which had, until then, never been given to me. It was a room I had always wanted to enter and where he was moving freely and fully at ease.

Ingmar Bergman
reflection dream moving
We make each other alive; it doesn’t make a difference if it hurt... by Ingmar Bergman

We make each other alive; it doesn’t make a difference if it hurts.

Ingmar Bergman
making-a-difference differences hurt

Then I felt that every inflection of my voice, every word in my mouth, was a lie, a play whose sole purpose was to cover emptiness and boredom. There was only one way I could avoid a state of despair and a breakdown. To be silent. And to reach behind the silence for clarity or at least try to collect the resources that might still be available to me.

Ingmar Bergman
voice play lying

Old age is like climbing a mountain. You climb from ledge to ledge. The higher you get, the more tired and breathless you become, but your views become more extensive.

Ingmar Bergman
climbing tired views

I usually take a walk after breakfast, write for three hours, have lunch and read in the afternoon. Demons don’t like fresh air - they prefer it if you stay in bed with cold feet; for a person who is as chaotic as me, who struggles to be in control, it is an absolute necessity to follow these rules and routines. If I let myself go, nothing will get done.

Ingmar Bergman
struggle air writing
Only someone who is well prepared has the opportunity to improvis... by Ingmar Bergman

Only someone who is well prepared has the opportunity to improvise.

Ingmar Bergman
prepared wells opportunity

The world is a den of thieves, and night is falling. Evil breaks its chains and runs through the world like a mad dog. The poison affects us all. No one escapes. Therefore let us be happy while we are happy. Let us be kind, generous, affectionate and good. It is necessary and not at all shameful to take pleasure in the little world.

Ingmar Bergman
dog running fall

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
dark dream art

No other art-medium–neither painting nor poetry–can communicate the specific quality of the dream as well as the film can. When the lights go down in the cinema and this white shining point opens up for us, our gaze stops flitting hither and thither, settles and becomes quite steady. We just sit there, letting the images flow out over us. Our will ceases to function. We lose our ability to sort things out and fix them in their proper places. We're drawn into a course of events–we're participants in a dream. And manufacturing dreams, that's a juicy business.

Ingmar Bergman
white dream art

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.

Ingmar Bergman
self children thinking
To feel. To trust the feeling. I long for that by Ingmar Bergman

To feel. To trust the feeling. I long for that

Ingmar Bergman
feelings feels long

There is no art form that has so much in common with film as music. Both affect our emotions directly, not via the intellect.

Ingmar Bergman
music emotion art

Sometimes I go for days without speaking to a soul. I think, “I should make that call", but I put it off. Because there’s something pleasurable about not talking. But then I love talking, so it’s not that. But sometimes it can be nice. It’s not like I sit here philosophizing, because I’ve no talent for that. It’s just this thing about silence that’s so wonderful.

Ingmar Bergman
nice talking thinking

There's always a tension in me between my urge to destroy and my will to live... Every morning I wake up with a new wrath, a new suspiciousness, a new desire to live.

Ingmar Bergman
wrath desire morning

I know, of course, that by using film we can bring in other previously unknown worlds, realities beyond reality.

Ingmar Bergman
unknown-worlds film reality