Memorable Quotes from Gunnar Björnstrand
7 quotesA Discussion About Songs and Spring
Jof
I've written a song about the spring! Would you like to hear it?
Mia
Our guest may not care for your songs.
Jöns
Oh, yes. I write songs myself.
Jof
You see!
Jöns
There's one about an enormous fish which you haven't heard.
Jöns
And you're not going to hear it, either.
Block
We worry about so much.
Mia
It's better to be two.
Block
To believe is to suffer. It is like loving someone in the dark who never answers.
Block
I shall remember this hour of peace: the strawberries, the bowl of milk, your faces in the dusk. Mikael asleep, Jof with his lute. I shall remember our words, and shall bear this memory between my hands as carefully as a bowl of fresh milk.
Block
And this will be a sign, and a great content.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Search for Guidance in Silence
Block
Did he show you the way?
Jöns
Not exactly.
Block
What did he say?
Jöns
Nothing really.
Block
Was he mute?
Jöns
No, milord. He was most eloquent.
Block
Indeed.
Jöns
Yes, eloquent. But the speech he held was gloomy. One has to say that.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Confronting the Reality of Emptiness
Jöns
Who will look after that child? The angels? God? Satan? Emptiness? No, emptiness, milord!
Block
It cannot be!
Jöns
Look at her eyes. Her poor mind is making a discovery. Emptiness!
Block
No!
Jöns
We are helpless. We see what she sees, and her terror is ours.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Critique of Crusades and Idealism
Jöns
For ten years we sat in the Holy Land, bitten by snakes, mosquitoes, and wild beasts, slaughtered by the heathens, poisoned by the wine, given crabs by the women, bled by the crabs, rotted by fevers, all for the glory of God!
Jöns and the Painter
For the glory of God!
Jöns
I tell you, our crusade was so stupid that only a true idealist could have thought it up.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Art as a Reminder of Mortality
Jöns
Why all this daubing?
Painter
To remind people of death.
Jöns
That won't make them any happier.
Painter
Why make them happy? Why not scare them?
Jöns
Then they won't look at your picture.
Painter
Yes, they will. A skull is more interesting than a naked woman.
Jöns
If you scare them—
Painter
They think—
Jöns
Then they think.
Painter
And are still more scared.
Jöns
And fall into the arms of the priests.
Jöns
What's that rubbish there?
Painter
People think the plague is a punishment from God. Crowds wander the land lashing each other to please the Lord.
Jöns
Lashing each other?
Painter
Yes, it's a horrible sight. You feel like hiding when they pass.
Jöns
Give me a gin. I've had nothing but water. I feel as thirsty as a desert camel.
Painter
Scared after all?
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Paradox of Love and Belief
Jöns
Love is the blackest of all plagues, but you don't even die of it, and usually it passes.
Jöns
If everything is imperfect in this world, love is perfect in its imperfection.
Plog
You're lucky. You believe in your own twaddle.
Jöns
Who says I believe it? But I like giving advice.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Reflection on Existence and Despair
Block
Out of the darkness we call to thee, O Lord! Oh, God, have mercy on us! For we are small and afraid and without knowledge!
Jöns
In the darkness where you claim to be, where we all probably are, in that darkness you shall find no one to listen to your laments or to be moved by your suffering. Wipe your tears and regard yourself reflected in your own insignificance.
Block
God, you who are somewhere, who must be somewhere, have mercy on us!
Jöns
I could have given you a herb to purge your worries about eternity, but it seems to be too late. But in any case, feel, to the last instant, the immense triumph in rolling your eyes and wriggling your toes!
Karin
Quiet! Quiet!
Jöns
I will be quiet, but under protest.
Girl
It is finished.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.