I can’t say why this film [Wild Strawberries] materialised. But I know that the important thing is to use myself both as tree and axe. In the end that’s all I have.

Today the individual has become the highest form, and the greatest bane, of artistic creation. The smallest wound or pain of the ego is examined under a microscope as if it were of eternal importance. The artist considers his isolation, his subjectivity, his individualism almost holy. Thus we finally gather in one large pen, where we stand and bleat about our loneliness without listening to each other and without realizing that we are smothering each other to death. The individualists stare into each other's eyes and yet deny each other's existence. We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster's whim and the purest ideal.

Johan: Jeg synes, livet er det værd, man lægger i det,
hverken mere eller mindre. Jeg nægter at leve under
evighedens synsvinkel.

Scener fra et ægteskab