137 Quotes by Andrei Tarkovsky

It is perfectly possible to be a professional director or a professional writer and not to be an artist: merely a sort of executor of other people’s ideas.

Where am I when I’m not in reality or in my imagination?

Let them laugh at their passions.

Never try to convey your idea to the audience – it is a thankless and senseless task. Show them life, and they’ll find within themselves the means to assess and appreciate it.

He, who doesn’t know why he lives, cannot feel love for people or for life itself. I don’t love myself enough, so I don’t love people enough. One of my major defects is impatience: I try to get rid of it, but i can’t. I am not tolerant enough for my age. I suffer for this, because i can’t approach people with sympathy. They annoy me.

Being silent for a while is good. Words can’t really express a person’s emotions.

My purpose is to make films that will help people to live, even if they sometimes cause unhappiness.

If a writer, despite his natural gifts, gives up writing because no one will publish him, then he is no writer. The artist is distinguished by his urge to create, which by very definition is a concomitant of talent.

The meaning of religious truth is hope.