Ingrid Bergman Quotes

“A kiss is a lovely trick to stop speech.”

“A kiss is a secret told to the mouth instead of the ear; kisses are the messengers of love and tenderness.”

“A kiss is the nature's way to stop a conversation, when the words are superfluous.”

“Acting is the best medicine in the world - if you're not feeling well, it goes away because you are busy thinking about something that isn't yourself. We actors are very fortunate people.”

“Barcelona was an unforgettable experience. It wasn't the pleasantest experience of my life, because everything in Spain starts so late.”

“Be yourself. The world worships the original.”

“Because I'm a Swede I always suffer in films, drive audiences out into the night sobbing. Look at The Bells of St. Mary's (1945). I was happy and gay but there had to be something wrong. So they gave me TB.”

“Cancer victims who don't accept their fate, who don't learn to live with it, will only destroy what little time they have left.”

“Charles Boyer was the most intelligent actor I ever worked with, and the very nicest. Widely read, well-educated.”

“Corn on the cob. When I first saw people in America eating it, they looked like they were playing harmonicas. It was so funny-looking, it made me laugh. Then I tried it and I learned right away how to do it. It tasted so much better that way, but it tasted best eaten in private with a bib or a towel, so I didn't ruin my clothes.”

“Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better!”

“Give me an hour and I'll make a lifetime out of it.”

“Happiness is good health and a bad memory.”

“Having a home, husband, and child ought to be enough for any woman's life. I mean, that's what we are meant for, isn't it? But still I think every day is a lost day. As if only half of me is alive. The other half is pressed down in a bag and suffocated.”

“Hollywood was a terribly lonely place for me. I had wonderful associations with Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, and all the others while I worked with them, but after they left the studios at night, they retired to their own circle of friends.”

“I always felt guilty. My whole life.”

“I always wanted to be an actress but my father, who sang well himself, wanted me to be a singer. So to please him I studied singing for three years, but got nowhere. All the time, however, I was acting for my own pleasure. I ransacked the attic for old clothes which I put on while I recited.”

“I always wanted to do comedies but nobody discovered this until my old age. They think all Swedes are like Greta Garbo.”

“I am happy I was born Swedish because this means having a tough education – at least it was in my time. But I couldn't live there, even when I was in my 20s. Sweden is too far from the rest of the world psychologically. There you feel confined on an island.”

“I can do everything with ease on the stage, whereas in real life I feel too big and clumsy. So I didn't choose acting. It chose me.”

“I come from Sweden and we Swedes are very different from Americans. By nature we are a more serious-minded people. Perhaps it is the ruggedness of the country and the rigors of our climate that make us so. We are not frivolous. The lighter side of life is less important. We even take our pleasures gravely.”

“I don't think anyone has the right to intrude in your life, but they do. I would like people to separate the actress and the woman.”

“I don't worry about it because we are all growing old. If I were the only one I would worry. But we're all in the same boat, and all of my friends are coming with me. We all go toward old age. How many years left we don't know. We just have to accept it.”

“I feel sometimes people are disappointed when they meet me because they are expecting Ilsa from Casablanca, and instead they get Ingrid from Stockholm.”

“I hate Sunday, I can't wait for Monday so I can go back to work again.”

“I have grown up alone. I've taken care of myself. I worked, earned money and was independent at 18.”

“I have had my different husbands, my families. I am fond of them all and I visit them all. But deep inside me there is the feeling that I belong to show business.”

“I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say.”

“I made so many films which were more important, but the only one people ever want to talk about is that one with Humphrey Bogart.”

“I never had the intention of staying in Sweden. It was too far away and too small a country. I wanted to go to big places.”