"Ingmar is able to convince you that you are fiendishly talented and that everything is your idea. He is not a director who badgers you or explains something ad nauseam. Ingmar's scripts are written in such a way that everything is there. All you have to do is read. And then act."

"Beloved by the people is the last thing you can accuse him of being. His public importance cannot be measured in popularity. It is much deeper, it is symbolic. He sometimes showed us what we wanted to see, sometimes what we most feared to find out about ourselves."

"Bergman is an authority, which is not the same thing as being authoritarian. He may be that, too, but he is above all someone to whom it behooves us to listen. His most characteristic aspect is his eye and his ear. He sees when you have found something, sees when something is out of kilter."

"Oh, he can be cruel. He can shout and carry on. Abuse his confidence more than once and you're out. Stand about without paying attention–he will go beserk."

"A hundred years from now the Swedish cultural world will be very severely judged for its treatment of Bergman. The way Bergman was treated in the 50's and 60's is so disgraceful that when I think about it I do not want to belong to the same cultural circles. Just look at the way Bergman was treated by the Left in the 60's–it is painful for me as a Swede."

"Of all male directors, Ingmar is the only one who is as interested in earrings and eyebrow plucking as his female colleagues."

"The best ones are dead or have quit. I have never wanted to be somebody's assistant–but I would gladly have made coffee for Welles, Fellini, or–occasionally–Bergman. Just to see how they did it."

"There are several Swedish directors whom I respect, but there are much too many who call themselves artists and there is nothing I dislike more. It is all Bergman's fault, for there are too many who try to imitate his quality and his intellectual style. But it is useless to try to imitate a master."

"Arguing against Ingmar is not a particularly brave thing. But there is actually not much reason to do so, for he is an exceptionally good and persuasive director."

"If Eugene O'Neill had not written Long Day's Journey into Night, Ingmar Bergman would probably have invented the play himself."

"The Winter's Tale is a long play with complex language. Ingmar edited it and cut it as if it had been a film, creating a rhythm."

"Ingmar Bergman possesses knowledge which will soon be lost.... Genuine knowledge about our profession, as actors, which I greatly fear will die out."

"To us actors, Ingmar Bergman's ability to create settings, actors' movements, is absolutely wonderful. His scenes are so organic, so concrete, that you can almost touch them. He works so rhythmically and in such a musical way that all my body, the body of an actor, has to do is to follow his lead."

"His way of concentrating is a marvellous thing to experience–his concentration, more than anything else. That there is nothing in life more important than precisely what you are doing at the moment. That is also his relationship with the actor: listening, observing, a presence which I am convinced few directors possess."

"Ingmar Bergman is a master of human relations. That makes him a magnificent story teller for people about people."

Thommy Berggren played Jim, the older brother, in Ingmar Bergman's production of Long Day's Journey into Night at BAM in 1991.
     "When we took Long Day's Journey on tour, there were naturally press conferences everywhere. Everyone was curious about Bergman. I used to answer:
     'The best thing about Bergman is that he actually shows up for work! Every single day.'
     '???'
     'I mean that, considering his sensitivity, his vulnerability, his anxiety, he would probably prefer to hide sometimes. But he doesn't, he shows up.'
     The best thing about him as a director is not always what he says but the fact he actually is there. That he is sitting down there, watching and listening. His presence is beautiful.
     Bergman asked me once what actually took place at the press conferences. I told him what I used to say.
     Then he smiled and said:
     'That's probably one of the nicest compliments I've ever got'."