Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

“If I won't be myself, who will?”

— Alfred Hitchcock

I have a perfect cure for a sore throat: cut it.

— 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

“A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“I'm a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

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

— Alfred Hitchcock

“Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.”

— 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

“Self-plagiarism is style.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

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

Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.

— Alfred Hitchcock

“These are bagpipes. I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made sound never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig.”

— 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

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

“You think she's pretty, you ought to see my slingshot!”

— Alfred Hitchcock

I'm frightened of eggs, worse than frightened, they revolt me. That white round thing without any holes ... have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking and spilling its yellow liquid? Blood is jolly, red. But egg yolk is yellow, revolting. I've never tasted it.

— 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

“In North By Northwest during the scene on Mount Rushmore, I wanted Cary Grant to hide in Lincoln's nostril and then have a fit of sneezing. The Parks Commission ... was rather upset at this thought. I argued until one of their number asked me how I would like it if they had Lincoln play the scene in Cary Grant's nose.
I saw their point at once.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

In many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I call 'photographs of people talking.' When we tell a story in cinema we should resort to dialogue only when it's impossible to do otherwise. I always try to tell a story in the cinematic way, through a succession of shots and bits of film in between.

— Alfred Hitchcock

“I have never known birds of different species to flock together. The very concept is unimaginable. Why, if that happened, we wouldn't stand a chance! How could we possibly hope to fight them?”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“Some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“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

“Weren't you ever booed at by your mother?!”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“Even my failures make money and become classics a year after I make them.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“Mystery is an intellectual process ... But suspense is essentially an emotional process.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“The ideal husband understands every word his wife doesn't say.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“To me Psycho was a big comedy. Had to be.”

— 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

To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script.

— Alfred Hitchcock

“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

“One must never set up a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, as in life.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“I don't understand why we have to experiment with film. I think everything should be done on paper. A musician has to do it, a composer. He puts a lot of dots down and beautiful music comes out. And I think that students should be taught to visualize. That's the one thing missing in all this. The one thing that the student has got to do is to learn that there is a rectangle up there - a white rectangle in a theater - and it has to be filled.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

In the documentary the basic material has been created by God, whereas in the fiction film the director is a God; he must create life.

— Alfred Hitchcock

“All love scenes started on the set are continued in the dressing room.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“Our primary function is to create an emotion and our secondary function is to sustain that emotions.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“I always take the audience into account.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

That is the most frightening sight I have ever seen.

— Alfred Hitchcock

“There is something more important than logic: imagination”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“Happiness is a small house, with a big kitchen.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

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

— Alfred Hitchcock

“Self-plagarism is style.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“Cary Grant is the only actor I ever loved in my whole life.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“I like stories with lots of psychology.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“It's only a movie, and, after all, we're all grossly overpaid.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“I enjoy playing the audience like a piano.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“Never judge a country by its politicians.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

“The silent pictures were the purest form of cinema”

— 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