Art Quotes by Andrei Tarkovsky

Art is born out of an ill-designed world

— Andrei Tarkovsky

An artist who has no faith is like a painter who was born blind.

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Art would be useless if the world were perfect.

— Andrei Tarkovsky

It is perfectly possible to be a professional director or a professional writer and not to be an artist: merely a sort…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

ALL ART, OF COURSE, IS INTELLECTUAL, BUT FOR ME, ALL THE ARTS, AND CINEMA EVEN MORE SO, MUST ABOVE ALL BE EMOTIONAL…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

An artist cannot be partially sincere any more than art can be an approximation of beauty

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual.

— Andrei Tarkovsky

IN CINEMA IT IS NECESSARY NOT TO EXPLAIN, BUT TO ACT UPON THE VIEWER'S FEELINGS, AND THE EMOTION WHICH IS AWOKEN IS…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

“Perhaps cinema is the most personal art, the most intimate. In cinema only the author's intimate truth will be convincing enough for…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

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

— Andrei Tarkovsky

“My aim is to place cinema among the other art forms. To put it on a par with music, poetry, prose, etc.”

— Andrei Tarkovsky

The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as an…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Art is realistic when it strives to express an ethical ideal. Realism is striving for truth, and truth is always beautiful. Here…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

The artist is always the servant, and is perpetually trying to pay for the gift that has been given to him as…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

“No other art can compare with cinema in the force, precision, and starkness with which it conveys awareness of facts and aesthetic…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

What is art? (...) Like a declaration of love: the consciousness of our dependence on each other. A confession. An unconscious act…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

An artist needs knowledge and the power of observation only so that he can tell from what he is abstaining, and to…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Becoming an artist does not merely mean learning something, acquiring professional techniques and methods. Indeed, as someone has said, in order to…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

MANY MANAGE TO SEPARATE THEIR LIFE FROM THEIR FILMS. THEY LIVE ONE WAY AND EXPRESS OTHER IDEAS IN THEIR WORKS. THEY ARE…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

The director’s task is to recreate life, its movement, its contradictions, its dynamic and conflicts. It is his duty to reveal every…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

AN ARTISTIC DISCOVERY OCCURS EACH TIME AS A NEW AND UNIQUE IMAGE OF THE WORLD, A HIEROGLYPHIC OF ABSOLUTE TRUTH. IT APPEARS…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

When I speak of the aspiration towards the beautiful, of the ideal as the ultimate aim of art, which grows from a…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

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

— Andrei Tarkovsky

...art must must carry man's craving for the ideal, must be an expression of his reaching out towards it; that art must…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Why do people go to the cinema? What takes them into a darkened room where, for two hours, they watch the play…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

It is a mistake to talk about the artist looking for his subject. In fact, the subject grows within him like a…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

“The beautiful is hidden from the eyes of those who are not searching for the truth, for whom it is contra-indicated. But…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

“There was a time when I thought that film, unlike other art forms (being the most democratic of them all) had a…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

“An artistic image is one that ensures its own development, its historical viability. An image is a grain, a self-evolving retroactive organism.…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

“If you throw even a cursory glance into the past, at the life which lies behind you, not even recalling its most…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

“My objective is to create my own world and these images which we create mean nothing more than the images which they…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

“In the case of someone who is spiritual receptive, it is possible to talk of an analogy between the impact made by…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

I'VE NOTICED, FROM MY EXPERIENCE, IF THE EXTERNAL, EMOTIONAL CONSTRUCTION OF IMAGES IN A FILM ARE BASED ON THE FILMMAKER'S OWN MEMORY,…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Unlike all the other art forms, film is able to seize and render the passage of time, to stop it, almost to…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

THE ARTISTIC IMAGE IS ALWAYS A METONYM, WHERE ONE THING IS SUBSTITUTED FOR ANOTHER, THE SMALLER FOR THE GREATER. TO TELL OF…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Never try to convey your idea to the audience - it is a thankless and senseless task. Show them life, and they’ll…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Art could be said to be a symbol of the universe, being linked with that absolute spiritual truth which is hidden from…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

The artist has a duty to be calm. He has no right to show his emotion, his involvement, to go pouring it…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Some sort of pressure must exist; the artist exists because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world…

— Andrei Tarkovsky

“Art affirms all that is best in man—hope, faith, love, beauty, prayer…What he dreams of and what he hopes for…What is art?…Like…

— Andrei Tarkovsky