I have a horror of tags and labels. I don't understand, for instance, how people can talk about Bergman's "symbolism". Far from being symbolic, be seems to me, through and almost biological naturalism, to arrive at the spiritual truth about human life that is important to him.

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.

The death of childhood is the beginning of poetry.

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

If you look for a meaning, you'll miss everything that happens.

I am convinced that any attempt to restore harmony in the world can only rest on the renewal of personal responsibility.

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.