Ingrid Bergman Quotations

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.

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.

It is not whether you really cry. It's whether the audience thinks you are crying.

Happiness is good health and a bad memory.

I was the shyest human ever invented, but I had a lion inside me that wouldn't shut up!

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.

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

If you took acting away from me, I'd stop breathing.

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

Time is shortening. But every day that I challenge this cancer and survive is a victory for me.

There are advantages to being a star though - you can always get a table in a full restaurant.

I remember one day sitting at the pool and suddenly the tears were streaming down my cheeks. Why was I so unhappy? I had success. I had security. But it wasn't enough. I was exploding inside.

Never again! I can see no reason for marriage - ever at all. I've had it. Three times is enough.

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.

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.

Until 45 I can play a woman in love. After 55 I can play grandmothers. But between those ten years, it is difficult for an actress.

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

Never again!! I can see no reason for marriage - ever at all. I've had it. Three times is enough.

I have had a wonderful life. I have never regretted what I did. I regret things I didn't do. All my life I've done things at a moment's notice. Those are the things I remember. I was given courage, a sense of adventure and a little bit of humor. 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.

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.

Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.

I was not beautiful. When I went to Hollywood the beauties were people like Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, Loretta Young. They were incredibly glamorous. I was always the girl next door.

You don't act for money. You do it because you love it, because you must.

Thank you for your coffee, seignor. I shall miss that when we leave Casablanca.

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.

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.

You must train your intuition - you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.

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

Be yourself. The world worships the original.

A kiss is a lovely trick to stop speech.

Just give the Italians a chance for drama and they take it with both hands.

I always felt guilty. My whole life.

There's nothing like a love song to give you a good laugh.

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

I do not know how to kiss, or I would kiss you. Where do the noses go?

A kiss is the natures way to stop a conversation, when the words are superfluous

I didn't choose acting. It chose me.

On acting to daughter Isabella Rossellini: Keep it simple. Make a blank face and the music and the story will fill it in.

The theater was my mother and my father.

I thank God who slowly dressed me in a heavy skin, otherwise I would now be dead.

I'm only interested in two kinds of people, those who can entertain me and those who can advance my career.

[On Alfred Hitchcock:] Hitch is a gentleman farmer who raises goose flesh.

In Hollywood, you're never any better than your last picture.

I won't do this movie because I don't believe the love story," she told Selznick. "The heroine is an intellectual woman, and an intellectual woman simply can't fall in love so deeply.

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.

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

The first time an autograph hunter told me, 'You are my mother's favorite actress,' I aged twenty years.

I regret the things I didn't do, not what I did.

One is never too old for romance.

The best way to keep young is to keep going in whatever it is that keeps you going. With me that's work, and a lot of it. And when a job is finished, relax and have fun.

I've never sought success in order to get fame and money; it's the talent and the passion that count in success.

when one never speaks, one has nothing to say because one has too much to say.

Thank you for your coffee, seignior. I shall miss that when we leave Casablanca.

In Paris, when the picture came out [Casablanca] they weren't too pleased with it. They didn't like the political point of view. The picture was taken off immediately and was never sold to television. A while ago it was brought in and opened in five theatres in Paris, as a new movie. They had a big gala opening where I appeared and people were absolutely crazy about it.

my life has been wonderful. I have done what I felt like. I was given courage and I was given adventure and that has carried me along. And then also a sense of humor and a little bit of common sense. It has been a very rich life.

I said, "I don't think I can give you that kind of emotion." And he [Hitchcock] sat there and said, "Ingrid, fake it!" Well, that was the best advice I've had in my whole life, because in all the years to come there were many directors who gave me what I thought were quite impossible instructions and many difficult things to do, and just when I was on the verge of starting to argue with them, I heard his voice coming to me through the air saying, "Ingrid, fake it!" It saved a lot of unpleasant situations and waste of time.