1. Give them pleasure. The same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
2. Always make the audience suffer as much as possible. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
3. In feature films the director is God. In documentaries, God is the director. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
4. There is something more important than logic: it is imagination. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
5. A movie is good, when the price of dinner, the entrance to the cinema and the garage were worth it. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
5. A movie is good, when the price of dinner, the entrance to the cinema and the garage were worth it. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
6. There is more emotion, realism, intrigue, violence and interest in a love novel than in most thrillers. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
7. Puns are the highest form of literature. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
8. This fear complex is ingrained in every individual. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
9. There is no terror in the explosion, only in the anticipation of it. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
10. Whenever possible, the public should be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is itself the climax of the story. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
10. Whenever possible, the public should be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is itself the climax of the story. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
11. The length of a movie should be directly related to the resistance of the human bladder. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
12. Luck is everything… My good luck in life was being a really scared person. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
13. The ideal husband understands every word his wife doesn’t say. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
14. Never judge a country by its politicians. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
15. Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more emotion. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
15. Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more emotion. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
16. Many movies are about life, mine are like a piece of cake. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
17. In a good marriage each is the better half of the other. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
18. I am full of fears and I do everything possible to avoid difficulties and any kind of complication. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
19. I always try to tell a story in a cinematographic way, through a succession of shots and film clips in between. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
20. A child’s best friend is his mother. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
20. A child’s best friend is his mother. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
21. Silent movies were the purest form of cinema. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
22. When we think that someone has hurt us in the past, we create defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt in the future. So the scary past causes a scary future and the past and future become one. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
23. People don’t always express their inner thoughts to each other. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
24. I always try to see things as if I remembered them three years later. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
25. Man does not live by murder alone. He needs affection, approval, encouragement, and once in a while, a good meal. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
25. Man does not live by murder alone. He needs affection, approval, encouragement, and once in a while, a good meal. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
26. To make a great movie you need three things: the script, the script, and the script. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
27. Until the husband understands absolutely all the words that his wife has said, he will not be really married. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
28. For me, the cinema is four hundred seats to fill. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
29. Unfortunately, the sound created by man has never obtained the purity of the sound obtained by the animal. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
30. It is very likely that it was because of the impression that Poe’s stories made on me that I turned to making suspense films. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
30. It is very likely that it was because of the impression that Poe’s stories made on me that I turned to making suspense films. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
31. Watching a murder on television can help us unload one’s feelings of hate. If they don’t have hate feelings, they can be obtained in the commercial interval. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
32. Never turn your back on a friend. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
33. All the love scenes that started on set continue in the dressing room. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
34. A look at the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
35. I am a typewriter director. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
35. I am a typewriter director. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
36. In many of the movies that are being made now, there is very little cinema. They are mostly what I call ‘photographs of people talking’. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
37. There is a clear difference between “suspense” and “surprise” and yet many images continually confuse the two. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
38. In the movies the murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and how complicated it is to kill a man. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
39. Mystery is an intellectual process… But suspense is essentially an emotional process. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
40. Some of our most exquisite murders have been domestic, tenderly performed in simple, homey places like the kitchen table. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
40. Some of our most exquisite murders have been domestic, tenderly performed in simple, homey places like the kitchen table. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
41. Actually, winning has nothing. That is if you are lucky enough to have a sharp eye, a quick mind, and no scruples. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
42. Our main function is to create an emotion and our secondary function is to maintain those emotions. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
43. I have never really liked women who hang their sex around their necks like they were trinkets. I think it should be discovered. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
44. There is nothing better than a burial at sea, it is simple, orderly and not very incriminating. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
45. I cannot read fiction without visualizing each scene. The result is that it becomes a series of images instead of a book. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
45. I cannot read fiction without visualizing each scene. The result is that it becomes a series of images instead of a book. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
46. My love for cinema is bigger than my morals. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
47. I am not against the police; I’m just afraid of them. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
48. I don’t want to sound immodest, but I can’t help but compare what I’ve tried to put into my films with what Poe put into his narratives. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
49. Self-plagiarism is style. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
50. When an actor comes to me saying that he wants to discuss his character, I tell him: he is in the script. If he tells me: But, what is my motivation?, I tell him: Your salary. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
50. When an actor comes to me saying that he wants to discuss his character, I tell him: he is in the script. If he tells me: But, what is my motivation?, I tell him: Your salary. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
51. If he had done Cinderella, people would have looked for a corpse in the horse-drawn carriage. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
52. I apologize for the blood on today’s show. Next time we will try to do better. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
53. I don’t understand why we have to experiment with cinema. I think everything should be done on paper. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
54. Happiness is a small house, with a large kitchen. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
55. I enjoy playing the audience like a piano. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
55. I enjoy playing the audience like a piano. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
56. A conversation can be quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a person really thinks or feels. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
57. Making a film means, above all, telling a story. That story may be improbable, but it must never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
58. We all go a little crazy sometimes. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
59. Reality is something that none of us can bear, at any time. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
60. I know what it’s like to feel alone and helpless and have the whole world against me. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
60. I know what it’s like to feel alone and helpless and have the whole world against me. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
61. I like everything around me to be crystal clear and completely calm. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
62. The only way to get rid of my fears is to make movies about them. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
63. One should never prepare a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, just like in life. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
64. I believe in putting the horror in the mind of the audience, and not necessarily on the screen. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
65. If I’m not going to be myself, who will? ~ Alfred Hitchcock
65. If I’m not going to be myself, who will? ~ Alfred Hitchcock
66. I have the feeling that inside of you, somewhere, there is someone that nobody knows. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
67. I’m lucky to be a coward, to have a low fear threshold, because a hero couldn’t make a good suspense movie. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
68. If it’s a good movie, the sound could play and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
69. The more successful the villain, the more successful the image. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
70. I’m sure anyone likes a good crime, as long as he’s not the victim. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
70. I’m sure anyone likes a good crime, as long as he’s not the victim. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
71. Ideas come from everything. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
72. Fear is not that difficult to understand. After all, weren’t we all scared when we were kids? ~ Alfred Hitchcock
73. Revenge is sweet and does not get fat. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
74. I don’t want to seem disloyal to television, but I think reading will do you good. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
75. Imagine a man sitting on his favorite sofa in his house. Beneath him is a bomb about to go off. He ignores it, but the public knows it. This is the suspense. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
75. Imagine a man sitting on his favorite sofa in his house. Beneath him is a bomb about to go off. He ignores it, but the public knows it. This is the suspense. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
76. Film your murders as love scenes and film your love scenes as murders. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
77. I am a writer and therefore automatically a suspicious character. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
78. What is drama but life with the boring parts cut out? ~ Alfred Hitchcock
79. Television has done a lot for psychiatry: it has not only spread its existence, but has contributed to making it necessary. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
80. Nothing has changed since Little Red Hood faced the big bad wolf. What scares us today is exactly the same kind of thing that scared us yesterday. ~ Alfred Hitchcock
80. Nothing has changed since Little Red Hood faced the big bad wolf. What scares us today is exactly the same kind of thing that scared us yesterday. ~ Alfred Hitchcock