What is art? (...) Like a declaration of love: the consciousness of our dependence on each other. A confession. An unconscious act that none the less reflects the true meaning of life—love and sacrifice.

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 meaning of religious truth is hope.

Poetry is an awareness of the world, a particular way of relating to reality.

We have forgotten to observe. Instead of observing, we do things according to patterns.

The only condition of fighting for the right to create is faith in your own vocation, readiness to serve, and refusal to compromise.

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