Ingmar Bergman Quotes

When I'm making a movie, it's making use of my creative juices, and it fills me up with what really is - I think my purpose here is to tell stories.

The root of any film project for me is this inner need to express something. What nurtures this root and makes it grow into a tree is the script. What makes the tree bear flowers and fruit is the directing.

There is no such thing as a good script, onlya good film, and I'm conscious that my scripts often read better than they play.

All the films I do, I write the scripts, I direct.

Getting your screenplay right is the most important thing you'll ever do on your film.

I have always thought if you are going to make a film, it's much better to have an original script that will play to film's strengths.

I write scripts to serve as skeletons awaiting the flesh and sinew of images.

'Hardware' came about because I had written quite a few scripts and hadn't had any luck getting them made.

I make films about stories that I get interested in.

Movie-making is a very creative medium of expression.

I've always seen it to be a privilege to make movies. It's a really expensive, creative medium.

The secret of making movies is having the strongest possible script.

To shoot a film is to organize an entire universe.

Every film starts with the script.

I think I came to film-making through writing. I started to write, and people, teachers, responded to my writing.

Hollywood has its own way of telling stories. I was just telling stories that I was familiar with. And it's what I want to do in the future: I want to take my audio cinema and put it on the screen.

I have stories that I'd like to maybe one day consider directing, but you need a lot of time to write and put it together.

The only way you can learn about making films is by making them, by putting your stamp on the thing.

The whole process of making movies and writing screenplays is visceral and intuitive.

Films are not mathematics - that's the first thing you need to understand. At least, that's how I feel. They are not words on paper. Films are made with people, with teams and with individual bundles of creativity coming together to fulfill the vision of an individual who is the director of the film.

I love TV, don't get me wrong. But with film, you're just banging out this one product and you're not waiting on another script. You have your script. It's great, in that way.

In film, you have to let go sometimes.

It slightly depends on your perspective, sort of how you look at these things, but when I sit down to write a script, I'm not planning to write a script; I'm planning to make a film, and so I only see the script as being just a step there.

If it were all in the script, why make the film?

When you make a film you usually make a film about an idea.