Man has, since the Enlightenment, dealt with things he should have ignored.

The Stalker seems to be weak, but essentially it is he who is invincible because of his faith and his will to serve others.

The film [Stalker] needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts.

If there are some who talk the same language as myself, then why should I neglect their interests for the sake of some other group of people who are alien and remote? They have their own 'gods and idols' and we have nothing in common. ... If you try to please audiences, uncritically accepting their tastes, it can only mean that you have no respect for them: that you simply want to collect their money.

For me the most interesting characters are outwardly static, but inwardly charged by an overriding passion.

It is obvious that art cannot teach anyone anything, since in four thousand years humanity has learnt nothing at all.

An artist needs knowledge and the power of observation only so that he can tell from what he is abstaining, and to be sure that his abstention will not appear artificial or false.