Andrei Tarkovsky Quotes

Off course, life has no point. If it had, man would not be free. He'd become a slave to that point and his life would be governed by completely new criteria: the criteria of slavery. Like an animal, the point of whose life is that life itself, the continuation of the species.
An animal carries out his slavish activities because it can feel the point of its life instinctively. Therefore its sphere is restricted. Man, on the other hand claims to aspire to the absolute.

το αν θα τα καταφέρουμε ή όχι εξαρτάται από τον δικό μας αυτοσεβασμό και από την ικανότητά μας να ξεχωρίζουμε ανάμεσα σε αυτό που έχει σημασία και στο απλώς εφήμερο.

We all either underestimate each other, or else exaggerate each other’s virtues. Very few people are capable of assessing others as they deserve. It is a particular gift. In fact I would even say that only the great are capable of it.

In the case of someone who is spiritual receptive, it is possible to talk of an analogy between the impact made by a work of art and that of a purely religious experience. Arts acts above all on the soul shaping its spiritual structure.

Q: What would you like to tell people?

I don’t know… I think I’d like to say only that they should learn to be alone and try to spend as much time as possible by themselves. I think one of the faults of young people today is that they try to come together around events that are noisy, almost aggressive at times. This desire to be together in order to not feel alone is an unfortunate symptom, in my opinion. Every person needs to learn from childhood how to be spend time with oneself. That doesn’t mean he should be lonely, but that he shouldn’t grow bored with himself because people who grow bored in their own company seem to me in danger, from a self-esteem point of view.

"La fórmula de "esto no lo entiende el pueblo" siempre me ha indignado profundamente. ¿Qué se quiere conseguir con ello? ¿Quién se toma el derecho de hablar en nombre del pueblo, de verse a sí mismo como la encarnación de la mayoría del pueblo? ¿Y quién sabe qué es lo que comprende el pueblo y qué deja de comprender, qué necesita y qué rechaza? ¿O es que alguien en alguna ocasión ha hecho si quiera una sencillísima pero honrada encuesta entre ese pueblo, para ilustrarse acerca de sus verdaderos intereses, reflexiones, deseos, esperanzas y decepciones? Yo mismo soy una parte de mi pueblo. Yo he vivido con él en mi patria y yo he tendido (de acuerdo con mi edad) las mismas experiencias históricas de ellos, yo he observado las mismas experiencias vitales que él y sobre ellos he reflexionado. Y también ahora, viviendo en el mundo occidental, sigo siendo hijo de mi pueblo. Soy una pequeña gota, una partícula diminuta de él, y espero que pueda expresar sus ideas, ideas profundamente ancladas en sus tradiciones culturales e históricas"

But how can I put a name to what it is that I want? How am I to know that I really don't want what I want, or that I really don't want what I don't want? These are intangibles that the moment you name them their meaning evaporates like jellyfish in the sun.

If you throw even a cursory glance into the past, at the life which lies behind you, not even recalling its most vivid moments, you are struck every time by the singularity of the events in which you took part, the unique individuality of the characters whom you met. This singularity is like the dominant note of every moment of existence; in each moment of life, the life principle itself is unique. The artist therefore tries to grasp that principle and make it incarnate, new each time; and each time he hopes, though in vain, to achieve an exhaustive image of the Truth of human existence. The quality of beauty is in the truth of life.

Η ζωή περικλείει και το θάνατο. Το ομοίωμα της ζωής τον αποκλείει ή τον αντιμετωπίζει ως τη μόνη δυνατότητα για την επικύρωσή της.
Η ίδια η καλλιτεχνική εικόνα εκφράζει ελπίδα, πάθος, πίστη και διάφορα άλλα, μεταξύ των οποίων και το θάνατο του ανθρώπου.
Η δημιουργικότητα είναι η άρνηση του θανάτου, άρα είναι αισιόδοξη, ακόμα κι όταν η ζωή του καλλιτέχνη είναι τραγική. Γι' αυτό δεν πρέπει να χωρίζουμε τους καλλιτέχνες σε αισιόδοξους και απαισιόδοξους. Σε γενικές γραμμές υπάρχουν μόνο χαρισματικοί και μη χαρισματικοί καλλιτέχνες.

Si alguien intenta llegar a ser director de cine, está arriesgando su vida entera, y él es el único responsable de ese riesgo

"في طفولتي اقترحت أمي أن أقرأ " الحرب والسلام" للمرة الأولى، ولسنوات طويلة بعد ذلك كانت أمي غالبا ما تستشهد بمقاطع من الرواية ملفتة نظري الى دقة وبراعة تولستوي في كتابة النص الأدبي، وبالتالي صارت رواية " الحرب والسلام" بالنسبة لي مثل مدرسة للفن، ومعيارا للذوق والعمق الفني. . . بعدها لم يعد ممكنا أن أقرأ أي عمل تافه لأنه سوف يولّد لديّ إحساساً حاداً بالنفور."

[T]he virtue of cinema is that it appropriates time, complete with that material reality to which it is indissolubly bound, and which surrounds us day by day and hour by hour.

Let them laugh at their passions.

The film 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

Perhaps the meaning of all human activity lies in the artistic consciousness, in the pointless and selfless creative act? Perhaps our capacity to create is evidence that we ourselves were created in the image and likeness of God?