8½ Quotes

Guido Anselmi Enough of symbolism and these escapist themes of purity and innocence.

Writer Destroying is better than creating, when we're not creating those few truly necessary things.

Writer You see, what stands out at a first reading is the lack of a central issue or a philosophical stance. That makes the film a chain of gratuitous episodes which may even be amusing in their ambivalent realism. You wonder, what is the director really trying to do? Make us think? Scare us? That ploy betrays a basic lack of poetic inspiration.

Writer It's better to destroy than create what's unnecessary.

Guido Anselmi Accept me as I am. Only then can we discover each other.

Pace, il produttore Why piece together the tatters of your life - the vague memories, the faces... the people you never knew how to love?

Guido Could you walk out on everything and start all over again? Could you choose one single thing, and be faithful to it? Could you make it the one thing that gives your life meaning... just because you believe in it? Could you do that?

Claudia I don't know... could you?

Guido No, the character I'm thinking of couldn't. He wants to possess and devour everything. He can't pass anything up. He's afraid he'll miss something. He's drained.

Claudia That's how the film ends?

Guido No, that's how it begins. Then he meets a girl at the springs. She gives him water to heal him. She's beautiful... young, yet ancient... child, yet already a woman... authentic, complete. It's obvious that she could be his salvation.

Guido You'll wear white... with long hair, just as you do now.

Guido Anselmi All the confusion of my life... has been a reflection of myself! Myself as I am, not as I'd like to be.

Guido Anselmi My Dears... Happiness consists of being able to tell the truth without hurting anyone.

Guido Anselmi I thought my ideas were so clear. I wanted to make an honest film. No lies whatsoever. I thought I had something so simple to say. Something useful to everybody. A film that could help bury forever all those dead things we carry within ourselves. Instead, I'm the one without the courage to bury anything at all. When did I go wrong? I really have nothing to say, but I want to say it all the same.

Guido Anselmi The truth is: I do not know... I seek... I have not yet found. Only with this in mind can I feel alive and look at you without shame.

Claudia I don't understand. He meets a girl that can give him a new life and he pushes her away?

Guido Because he no longer believes in it.

Claudia Because he doesn't know how to love.

Guido Because it isn't true that a woman can change a man.

Claudia Because he doesn't know how to love.

Guido And above all because I don't feel like telling another pile of lies.

Claudia Because he doesn't know how to love.

Writer Life is so full of confusion already, there's no need to add chaos to the chaos.