Max von Sydow Quotations

A vacation spot out of season always has a very special magic

Hiroshima has become a metaphor not just for nuclear war but for war and destruction and violence toward civilians. It's not just the idea we should not use nuclear arms. We should not start another war because it's madness.

I don't believe in devils. Indifference and misunderstandings can create evil situations. Most of the time, people who appear to be evil are really victims of evil deeds.

I admired Stephen Daldry very much; I think he's a brilliant director, and also, I feel close to him because he has a lot of theater behind him. He's also a man of great imagination and a lovely sense of humor.

When I was brought up in Sweden, there was a great opportunity for young people to learn how to act in our municipal theaters with their small companies. You would be under contract for eight months and have the summer free to take other opportunities.

I think English is a fantastic, rich and musical language, but of course your mother tongue is the most important for an actor

I remember those days with Bergman with great nostalgia. We were aware that the films were going to be quite important, and the work felt meaningful.

Producers are not gamblers. They want a good return on their investment.

The idea of working with Steven Spielberg was very attractive. He's such a master. He knows the language of the camera and of filmmaking, which gives him a great freedom.

It's important to me to work in my own language now and then. I love English, but you can never learn to master a foreign language if you're not brought up with it

If Jesus came back today, and saw what was going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.

We should look back now and then. Our politicians should look back every now and then.

The Devil, of course, must have been or must be a very charming person.

The more I had to act like a saint, the more I felt like being a sinner.

When I finished the role of Christ, I felt as though I'd been let out on parole. A man who has served 18 months isn't eager to go back to prison.

Playing Christ, I began to feel shut away from the world. A newspaper became one of my biggest luxuries. I noticed that some of my close friends began treating me with reverence.

Playing the role of Christ was like being in a prison. It was the hardest part I've ever had to play in my life. I couldn't smoke or drink in public. I couldn't.

The most difficult part of playing Christ was that I had to keep up the image around the clock. As soon as the picture finished, I returned home to Sweden and tried to find my old self. It took six months to get back to normal.

The studio rented a house for my wife in Los Angeles under a phony name to keep reporters away. Whenever I wanted to visit her and my children, I would have to sneak in the back door after dark.

I began imagining scenes in public which some drunk would come up to me and slap me in the face. Nothing like that ever happened, but I often wonder if I would have turned the other cheek

I'm getting too old to play some parts, but I'm still greedy

Italians are great improvisers. If something unforeseen happens, they throw up their hands, and they adjust.

Perhaps I scare people. I don't know why.

Bergman has a very special eye for people. His background taught him to listen and to feel.

There are casting directors with lots of imagination, but also some with not as much imagination.

There are those who want to believe but can't, and there are those who believe as children and it's no problem for them at all.

Mr. Bergman was a man of great working discipline. He forced everyone to concentrate when it was important. No disturbing noise during rehearsal. A code of silence.

Mr. Bergman had a great imagination and saw the possibilities within every one of his actors, and he gave us great challenges. It was very inspiring.

My father was a professor of folklore, and my mother was a teacher until she was married. I had a good relationship with them, and the only argument we had was when I went to university and wanted to go into the theater instead of studying to be a lawyer.

Nobody told me there was any idea for a sequel to 'The Exorcist.' But my agent called me to tell me they were going to do it, and there was a part for me. I said, 'But I died in the first film.' 'Well,' he told me, 'this is from the early days of Father Merrin's life.' I told him I just didn't want to do it again.

No doubt, the most important thing in my career was my time with Mr. Bergman, with whom I worked in so many films and also in so many stage productions, so it was a continuous working relationship and also a friendship, of course, that lasted for so many years.

I don't have a philosophy for choosing roles. Sometimes, it's just, 'This might be interesting; that might be fun to do.' There might be interesting actors or directors in the project, even if the part is not important. And then sometimes, you need the money.

I find it very hard to take myself seriously.

France is, for me, the country of happiness.

I actually know the moment I became known. It was at the Cannes Film Festival, when they showed 'The Virgin Spring.' I walked into that theater as one person, and I walked out as another.

I was in such a hurry to be an actor. Now I'm sometimes mad at myself that I didn't stop and study for a couple of years.

I think it's good that we're sometimes reminded of important events in history.

I think the film you hear about the most is 'The Exorcist.' When people come up to me and say, 'Oh, you scared me!' I was the good guy in that film!

My parents were brought up in families which believed theatre people weren't to be trusted. But they were nice people.

Most screenplays I receive are boring, and some are straight-out bad.

I would like to do 'King Lear.' But I would like to do it in Swedish.

I would love to do parts I have never done before, but unfortunately, if you have had success in a particular type of character, the casting agents think, 'Oh! We'll have something exactly like that.' It's very boring.

When I know what the character I'm supposed to play wants in general terms, and when I know what did the other characters want to do, that's when all these wills collide and the emotions show up.

There are many documentary filmmakers who have a tough time because they don't really get what they need to do what they want. There are so many people with good visions that should be encouraged and helped. And they will deliver, I'm sure.

To me, part of the fascinating profession of acting is to participate in all these strange situations, to try to understand all these interesting characters, fictitious or real, their human nature... It's extraordinarily fascinating.

Film acting, if you don't play the lead, you come, and you do your scenes in a few days, and you act with a couple of colleagues. All the rest of the actors you never see, and you don't even meet many of them. And you don't know what will happen with what you've done. Maybe it will be in the film, maybe it will not.

Film work can be very interesting, but it also can be awfully boring because who creates the film? The actors? No. It is the director. It's his piece of work.

You cannot study acting in books. Do it, do it, do it. And watch good actors. See what they are doing and how they are doing it. You have to practically participate, I think, in order to develop yourself.

What is important, I think, is to reach as many people as you can and do it as well as you can. Reach them and inspire them or amuse them, or maybe in some odd moments help them to discover something they hadn't thought of before.

Bergman was courageous in choosing people to do things that they themselves might not expect to play.

Between you and me, odd things happen always on set.

I've been the type of father who tries desperately to be perfect but doesn't succeed all the time.

Sometimes you remember more about the location where you shot the film than the film itself.

Sometimes you become friends with the characters you portray.

During my military service, I performed a sketch in which I played a flea called Max. So when critics kept misspelling my name, I decided to change it and thought, 'Ah! Max!'

It's very difficult being an actor and being away for a lot of time, but my sons haven't complained too much too often.

It often disturbs me, when I see a film set in a historical time, that the people are too modern.

New York is a fascinating city. I think it's a very inspiring city, but it's overpowering when you get older. It tires me now. But it's wonderful for young people - very inspiring and full of surprises and full of ideas.

It was great to watch Orson Welles, not only as an actor but as a director.

It's not a matter of learning lines. It's a matter of getting into the ideas and the will of the person. It's a matter of, 'What does he want to do? What does he want to achieve?'

Ingmar Bergman had a great sense of humor, and he had a very special, characteristic laugh that you always recognized - if he went to watch a theater show, 'Ah! He is here tonight.'

In a silent film, you speak but the audience does not hear you.

If people ask me, 'For you, what is your most important film?' I have a feeling that they all sort of want me to answer with one of the Bergman films. But I cannot choose.

Human beings are human beings whether they speak or not.

I could never learn to be totally fluent in any other language.

I accept a role only if it's something I really, really like

I'm not in retirement. I just don't want to work so much, and I don't get that many offers any more.

Only very rarely are foreigners or first-generation immigrants allowed to be nice people in American films. Those with an accent are bad guys

The offers I get are for grandfathers, uncles - and they often die very quickly in the script.

In this country, you have movie actors and theatre actors and television actors

Filming is repetition and many takes

In Hollywood they usually cast me as villains or priests

I've never been in a barroom brawl in my life. I just don't do such things

All my life I've been looking for diversity

In a theater, the part is mine and I can control it as I want to. In the movies, I don't have direct contact, and I am fighting technical machinery

The power of Christ compels you!

Spielberg knows his craft so well, he can also improvise, and that is a lot of fun.

There comes a time, thief, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

I like to play with things a while before annihilation.

Do it, do it, do it. And watch good actors. See what they are doing and how they are doing it. You have to practically participate, I think, in order to develop yourself.

I just feel I shouldn't work too much, because there are so many other things to do

Movies give me an opportunity to go places. I'm not only a Swede but an American, not just a man of my time, but I've been living 2,000 years ago-and not just in a new country, America, but in the Holy Land, too