Through a Glass Darkly Quotes

David: Virility means more than health.

Martin: If Hemingway could, we can. Let's go!

[Fredrik rejects Karin's attempt to console him]

Fredrik: Thanks, I can give myself all the pity I want.

Fredrik: I'm an artist.

Karin: Artist?

Fredrik: Yes, Princess, a thoroughbred artist: a poet with no poems, a painter with no pictures, a musician with no music. I despise ready... made art, the banal result of vulgar effort. My life is my work and dedicated to my love for you.

David: We draw a magic circle and shut out everything that doesn't agree with our secret games. Each time life breaks the circle, the games turn grey and ridiculous. Then we draw a new circle and build a new defense.

Karin: Poor little daddy.

David: Yes, poor little daddy, forced to live in reality.

[last lines]

Fredrik: Papa spoke to me.

Fredrik: Father, I'm scared. When I was hugging Karin in the boat, reality was revealed. Do you know what I mean?

David: I do.

Fredrik: Reality was revealed, and I collapsed. It's like a dream. Anything can happen. Anything.

David: I know.

Fredrik: I can't live in this new world.

David: Yes, you can. But you must have a support.

Fredrik: What kind of support? You mean a God? Give me a proof of his existance. You can't.

David: I can. But you gotta pay attention to what I say.

Fredrik: Yes. I need to listen.

David: I can only tell you a thought of my own hopes. It is to know that love exists for real in the human world.

Fredrik: A sort of special love, I suppose?

David: All kinds of it. The bigger and the smaller, the most absurd one and the most sublime one. All kinds of love.

Fredrik: What about the desire for love?

David: Desire and denying. Trust and distrust.

Fredrik: Then love is the proof?

David: I don't know if love is the proof of God's existance or if it's God itself.

Fredrik: To you, love and God are the same thing.

David: That thought makes me feel less empty; Makes my desperation less worse.

Fredrik: Go on, dad.

David: All of a sudden, emptiness turns into abundance, and desperation turns into life. It's like a temporary death's sentence strike.

Fredrik: Dad... if it's like how you say it is, then God is all over Karin. We love her so much.

David: Yes.

Fredrik: Can't that help her?

David: I think so.

Fredrik: Hey! Be careful now. Keep away from me. Stop hugging and kissing me. Stop sunbathing half naked. You disgust me. You know very well what I mean. Women are horrible. How they smell and move around, how they stick out their stomachs, how they comb their hair and talk. Makes me feel like a skinned rabbit!

Karin: Poor boy.

Fredrik: Thanks. I can give myself all the pity I want.