Krzysztof Kieslowski Quotes

In believing too much in rationality, our contemporaries have lost something.

I like chance meetings – life is full of them. Every day, without realising it, I pass people whom I should know.

It’s not interesting to achieve; the ways of achievement are interesting.

I believe the life of every person is worthy of scrutiny, containing its own secrets and dramas.

I am trained as a film-maker. There is nothing else I can do.

I have no problem being with people of different nationalities.

The television industry doesn’t like to see the compexity of the world. It prefers simple reporting, with simple ideas: this is white, that’s black; this is good, that’s bad.

We’re always looking at this love through the eyes of the person who is suffering because of this love.

To tell you the truth, in my work, love is always in opposition to the elements. It creates dilemmas. It brings in suffering. We can’t live with it, and we can’t live without it. You’ll rarely find a happy ending in my work.

I have one good characteristic: I’m a pessimist, so I always imagine the worst – always. To me, the future is a black hole.

I can’t imagine life without Poland. I find it very hard to find a place for myself in the West.

Things have changed for the worse. That’s why former eastern bloc countries are electing communists again. We are missing them and longing for the times we cursed before.

Different people in different parts of the world can be thinking the same thoughts at the same time. It’s an obsession of mine: that different people in different places are thinking the same thing but for different reasons. I try to make films which connect people.

Documentaries deal with people who live real, everyday lives. But if these people trusted us and told us the truth about their lives, it could be used against them – which sometimes happened.

For me optimism is two lovers walking into the sunset arm in arm. Or maybe into the sunrise – whatever appeals to you.