It's very important to meet such a person as Tarkovsky in one's life.

— Tonino Guerra

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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 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.

— Andrei Tarkovsky

A poet is someone who uses a single image to express a universal message.

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Margarita Terekhova

Mirror, dir. by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1975

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In a certain sense the past is far more real, or at any rate more stable, more resilient than the present. The present slips and vanishes like sand between the fingers, acquiring material weight only in its recollection.

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Stalker, dir. by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1979

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In that sense "The Sacrifice" is, amongst other things, a repudiation of commercial cinema. My film is not intended to support or refute particular ideas, or to make a case for this or that way of life. What I wanted was to pose questions and demonstrate problems that go to the very heart of our lives, and thus to bring the audience back to the dormant, parched sources of our existence. Pictures, visual images, are far better able to achieve that end than any words, particularly now, when the word has lost all mystery and magic and speech has become mere chatter, empty of meaning, as Alexander observes. We are being stifled by a surfeit of information, yet at the same time our feelings remain untouched by the supremely important messages that could change our lives.

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Rublev, dir. by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1966

Andrei Tarkovsky, a genius in life, a myth after his death. A great director who created his own world in cinema, totally understandable and yet much misunderstood. [...] Only the closet ones knew his suffering.

— Denis Trofimov

When I speak of poetry I am not thinking of it as a genre. Poetry is an awareness of the world, a particular way of relating to reality.

— Andrei Tarkovsky