Only one journey is possible: The journey within. We don't learn a whole lot from dashing about on the surface of the Earth. Neither do I believe that one travels so as to eventually return. Man can never reach back to the point of origin, because he has changed in the process. And of course we cannot escape from ourselves; what we are we carry with us. We carry with us the dwelling place of our soul, like the turtle carries its shell. A journey through all the countries of the world would be a mere symbolic journey. Whatever place one arrives at, it is still one's own soul that one is searching for.

— Andrei Tarkovsky

Donatas Banionis

* 28.04.1924 - † 04.09.2014

You mean more to me than any scientific truth.

— Kris Kelvin; in Solaris, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972

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I had the greatest difficulty in explaining to people that there is no hidden, coded meaning in the film, nothing beyond the desire to tell the truth. Often my assurances provoked incredulity and even disappointment. Some people evidently wanted more: They needed arcane symbols, secret meanings. They were not accustomed to the poetics of the cinema image.

— Andrei Tarkovsky; on Mirror

You are she who is not. But I am he who is.

— Nostalghia, dir. by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1983

Solaris, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972

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

— Andrei Tarkovsky

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He [Andrei Tarkovsky] had a rare, enormous gift on concentration. That he had done so much, and, most importantly, how he done it, was due to the ability of his to concentrate, which is very rare. In art, in general, concentration is a very serious thing. A true concentration. When your comprehension is very deep. A very few people can do it, only great artists.

— Eduard Artemyev

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Mirror, dir. by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1975

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Solaris, dir. by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972

Stalker; dir. by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1979