Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

Atticus, I think we're being stalked by the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock. First it was a Vulture adn now two giant ravens are coming our way. Oberon ~ Kevin Hearne

The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I think of great masters, like [Alfred] Hitchcock, for example, who works absolutely within this sensational realm. You feel like you can always tell what temperature a room is in a Hitchcock film because the people feel alive, they don't feel like they're just being filmed on a stage. ~ Tilda Swinton

Alfred Hitchcock had to find ways to create tension without showing it, but now with computer-generated effects you can show anything. ~ Giles Duley

It's one of those jobs where you go, 'Oh no, I've got to play Alfred Hitchcock. I have to play him even though I know what this is going to involve.' ~ Toby Jones

If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Disney has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor he just tears him up. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Cary Grant is the only actor I ever loved in my whole life. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

The Birds could be the most terrifying motion picture I have ever made. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn't have to cope with the actors and all the rest.
-Alfred Hitchcock ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Every time you look at a house in Los Angeles, the real-estate agent will tell you that someone famous once lived there. It always seemed irrelevant to me: Does a property gain value just because Alfred Hitchcock used to eat breakfast there? ~ Claire Scovell LaZebnik

Revenge is sweet and not fattening. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book
it makes a very poor doorstop. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I understand that the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, astatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made sound never equaled the purity of sound achieved by the pig. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I like stories with lots of psychology. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

The best actor is the man who can do nothing extremely well ... ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I'm a writer and, therefore, automatically a suspicious character. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I make my living doing freelance directing for North American television shot in Toronto, series like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone, and so forth. ~ Atom Egoyan

My knowledge of trains - and love before first sight, love at negative-one sight - comes from Alfred Hitchcock. ~ Darin Strauss

Our primary function is to create an emotion and our secondary function is to sustain that emotions. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Television has brought back murder into the home - where it belongs. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Content, I am not interested in that at all. I don't give a damn what the film is about. I am more interested in how to handle the material so as to create an emotion in the audience. I find too many people are interested in the content. If you were painting a still life of some apples on a plate, it's like you'd be worrying whether the apples were sweet or sour. Who cares? ~ Alfred Hitchcock

For me, suspense doesn't have any value if it's not balanced by humor. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

You're young forever when you write. Alfred Hitchcock directed until the day he died. As long as you don't have any dementia or Alzheimer's, if you have your All-Bran every day and clear yourself out, I think your brains are gonna be all right. ~ Mel Brooks

Bill Gates is said to be Aspergian. Musician Glenn Gould is said to have been Aspergian, along with scientist Albert Einstein, actor Dan Aykroyd, writer Isaac Asimov, and movie director Alfred Hitchcock. As adults, none of those people would be described as disabled, but they were certainly eccentric and different. ~ John Elder Robison

Claude Jade is a brave nice young lady. But I don't give any guarantee what she will do on a taxi's back seat. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Nowadays, the work of Alfred Hitchcock is admired all over the world. Young people who are just discovering his art through the current rerelease of Rear Window and Vertigo, or through North by Northwest, may assume his prestige has always been recognized, but this is far from being the case.

In the fifties and sixties, Hitchcock was at the height of his creativity and popularity. He was, of course, famous due to the publicity masterminded by producer David O. Selznick during the six or seven years of their collaboration on such films as Rebecca, Notorious, Spellbound, and The Paradine Case.

His fame had spread further throughout the world via the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the mid-fifties. But American and European critics made him pay for his commercial success by reviewing his work with condescension, and by belittling each new film.
(...)
In examining his films, it was obvious that he had given more thought to the potential of his art than any of his colleagues. It occurred to me that if he would, for the first time, agree to respond seriously to a systematic questionnaire, the resulting document might modify the American critics' approach to Hitchcock.
That is what this book is all about. ~ Francois Truffaut

Gee, I'm sorry I didn't hear you in all this rain. Go ahead in, please.
Anthony Perkin's Norman Bates
Talking To Janet Leigh's Marion Crane. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

This weapon [an ax] is primitive but effective. And it's also guaranteed to be fifty-percent painless. You see, it takes two people to operate, and the person at this end [the handle] doesn't feel a thing. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Television is like the American toaster, you push the button and the same thing pops up everytime. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

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. ~ Ingrid Bergman

I'm a frustrated actor. My ... goal is to beat Alfred Hitchcock in the number of cameos. I'm going to try to break his record. ~ Stan Lee

In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

You think she's pretty, you ought to see my slingshot! ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Puns are the highest form of literature. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

San Francisco would be a good location for a murder mystery. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

There are several differences between a football game and a revolution. For one thing, a football game usually lasts longer and the participants wear uniforms. Also, there are usually more casualties in a football game. The object of the game is to move a ball past the other team's goal line. This counts as six points. No points are given for lacerations, contusions, or abrasions, but then no points are deducted, either. Kicking is very important in football. In fact, some of the more enthusiastic players even kick the ball, occasionally. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out? ~ Alfred Hitchcock

If I won't be myself, who will? ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I was an uncommonly unattractive young man. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

The thing I loved about Alfred Hitchcock is that he left a lot of open ends there, a lot of clues that didn't really add up the way you think they would, and sometimes, not at all. ~ Kim Novak

In my mid-20s, I was directing episodes of 'Alfred Hitchcock' and 'Peter Gunn.' I was pretty much on course and - as I sometimes joke - was prepared to devote my life to become the second best film director in my family. ~ George Stevens, Jr.

That is the most frightening sight I have ever seen. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

All love scenes started on the set are continued in the dressing room. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Someone once told me that every minute a murder occurs, so I don't want to waste your time, I know you want to go back to work. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more the excitement. ... The conventional big-bosomed blonde is not mysterious. And what could be more obvious than the old black velvet and pearls type? The perfect 'woman of mystery' is one who is blonde, subtle and Nordic. ... Although I do not profess to be an authority on women, I fear that the perfect title [for a movie], like the perfect woman is difficult to find. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I've never been very keen on women who hang their sex round their neck like baubles. I think it should be discovered. It's more interesting to discover the sex in a woman than it is to have it thrown at you, like a Marilyn Monroe or those types. To me they are rather vulgar and obvious. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

It's only a movie, and, after all, we're all grossly overpaid. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

As a kid I watched the Academy Awards on television and always wanted one - or several - like one of my favorite directions, John Ford. He won six. On the other hand, Orson Welles, who's on the top of my list, didn't win any. Alfred Hitchcock didn't win any. Howard Hawks didn't win any. ~ Martin Scorsese

They know you're not Alfred Hitchcock, but you need to be enough Alfred Hitchcock for them not to be bothered by it. That's a reassuring thing. ~ Toby Jones

Drama is real life with all the boring parts cut out. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Mystery is an intellectual process ... But suspense is essentially an emotional process. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Brandon, until this very moment, the world and the people in it have always been dark and incomprehensible to me, and I've tried to clear my way with logic and superior intellect, and you've thrown by own words right back in my face; you've given my words a meaning that I never dreamed of, and you tried to twist them into a cold logical excuse for your ugly murder!

Tonight you've made me ashamed of every concept I've ever had, of superior or inferior beings, but I thank you for that shame, because now I know that we're each of us a separate human being, Brandon, with the right to live and work and think as individuals, but with an obligation to the society that we live in. By what right do you dare say that there's a superior few to which you belong? By what right did you dare decide that that boy in there [he's referencing the dead body of "David," lying in a trunk in the middle of the room] was inferior and therefore could be killed?

Did you think you were God Brandon? Is that what you thought when you choked the life out of him? Is that what you thought when you served food from his grave! I don't know what you thought or what you are, but I know what you've done - YOU'VE MURDERED! You've strangled the life of a fellow human being who could live and love as you never could... and never will again! ~ Arthur Laurents

If you can't do it naturally, then fake it. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Raksin worked for Alfred Hitchcock, about whom one of the most famous Raksin anecdotes was spoken. The legendary director declared he wanted no music at all for the oceanic Lifeboat, because he felt audiences would wonder where the music was coming from in the middle of the sea. Raksin said, Ask Hitch where the cameras are coming from. ~ Paul Zollo

Alfred Hitchcock, Isaac Newton, Elvis Presley, Captain Bligh, they're heroic or pathetic depending on which book you buy. ~ Bob Seger

One never knows the ending. One has to die to know exactly what happens after death, although Catholics have their hopes. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Reality is something that none of us can stand, at any time. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Ideas come from everything ~ Alfred Hitchcock

A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I'm not against the police; I'm just afraid of them. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Even my failures make money and become classics a year after I make them. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

T.V. has brought murder back into the home where it belongs. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I'm sure anyone who likes a good crime, provided it is not the victim. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

For every answer, I like to bring up a question. Maybe I'm related to Alfred Hitchcock or maybe I got to know him too well, but I think life should be that way. ~ Kim Novak

There is nothing so good as a burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Man does not live by murder alone. He needs affection, approval, encouragement and, occasionally, a hearty meal. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I can't read fiction without visualizing every scene. The result is it becomes a series of pictures rather than a book. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I'm full of fears and I do my best to avoid difficulties and any kind of complications. I like everything around me to be clear as crystal and completely calm. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Actually, I have no regard for money. Aside from its purchasing power, it's completely useless as far as I'm concerned. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Happiness is a small house, with a big kitchen. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

A clear horizon - nothing to worry about on your plate, only things that are creative and not destructive ... I can't bear quarreling, I can't bear feelings between people - I think hatred is wasted energy, and it's all non-productive. I'm very sensitive - a sharp word, said by a person, say, who has a temper, if they're close to me, hurts me for days. I know we're only human, we do go in for these various emotions, call them negative emotions, but when all these are removed and you can look forward and the road is clear ahead, and now you're going to create something - I think that's as happy as I'll ever want to be. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

There's always one sure way of finding out that you're a misfit. When you're eleven years old, and your friends are telling you that they just sneaked into the theater to watch 'Twilight' and that it was "sooooo emotional and sooooo terrifying and soooooo romantic!" - but you've been spending the summer watching 'Rosemary's Baby' and 'Don't Look Now' and knowing the lines to all the Alfred Hitchcock films by heart - that's the moment you realize that you're a misfit. ~ Rebecca McNutt

One must never set up a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, as in life. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I'm not much into rear window ethics. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I use every single thing that Alfred Hitchcock taught me in my acting career ... I am very grateful for the education he gave me in making motion pictures. ~ Tippi Hedren

It has been rumored that "Psycho" is so terrifying that it will scare some people speechless. Some of my men hopefully sent their wives to a screening. The women emerged badly shaken but still vigorously vocal. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

A woman who spends all day washing and cooking and ironing doesn't want to go to the movies to watch a film about a woman who spends all day washing and cooking and ironing. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Orson Welles lists Citizen Kane as his best film, Alfred Hitchcock opts for Shadow of a Doubt, and Sir Carol Reed chose The Third Man - and I'm in all of them. ~ Joseph Cotten

It's hard to imagine anyone interested in film not being a fan of Alfred Hitchcock because he's such a key influence on the entire history of cinema - it's hard to escape his shadow. ~ Toby Jones

I remembered watching the film from Alfred Hitchcock, 'Dial M for Murder,' and he shot almost all of that movie in one room. There was a genius in what Hitchcock did by manipulating things in that room so that you could see the distances between things like the tables and the vases because of how he used perspective. ~ Dario Argento

Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing. It didn't change people's habits. It just kept them inside the house. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

The picture's over. Now I have to go and put it on film. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

People don't always express their inner thoughts to one another; a conversation may be quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a person really thinks or feels. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Even in Australia I'd say 80 percent of our television was American. I grew up watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone. I used to sit with my mum when I was just nine years old, trying to guess what the twist would be. I love that kind of thing. ~ Jacki Weaver

The ideal husband understands every word his wife doesn't say. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

A woman of mystery is one who also has a certain maturity and whose actions speak louder than words. Any woman can be one, if she keeps those two points in mind. She should grow up-and shut up. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock once told me, when I was analyzing a lot of things about his pictures, 'Clint, you must remember, it's only a movie.' ~ Clint Eastwood

When you can look forward, and the road is clear ahead, and now you are going to create something - that's as happy as I'd want to be. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Self-plagarism is style. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders. ~ Alfred Hitchcock