quotes

Categories: Film directors

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock (August 13, 1899 - April 29, 1980)

British Film director .

Works: The 39 Steps, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho , and many more .

The Master of Suspense

Table of contents

Sourced

I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella , the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
- Newsweek, 11 Jun. 1956

Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents . 1960

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.
- News summaries, 31 Dec. 1963

One of television’s great contributions is that it brought murder back into the home, where it belongs.
- National Observer, 15 Aug. 1966

Seeing a murder on television can … help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.
- National Observer, 15 Aug. 1966

[ Television is] like the invention of indoor plumbing. It didn’t change people’s habits. It just kept them inside the house.
- NY Journal-American, 25 Aug. 1965

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.
- Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock, 1967

Give them pleasure—the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.
- [on audiences], Asbury Park NJ Press, 13 Aug. 1974

Self-plagiarism is style.
- [defending repetition of his filming techniques], London Observer, 8 Aug. 1976

Blondes make the best victims. They’re like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints."
- CBS TV, 20 Feb. 1977

[This award is] meaningful because it comes from my fellow dealers in celluloid.
- [on receiving American Film Institute’s 1979 Lifetime Achievement Award], recalled on his death, 29 Apr. 1980

I’m not against the police; I’m just afraid of them.
- New Society, London, 10 May, 1984

In the documentary the basic material has been created by God, whereas in the fiction film the director is the god; he must create life.
- François Truffaut with the collaboration of Helen G. Scott, Hitchcock, rev. ed., cop. 1984, p. 102

Attributed

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.

A lot of movies are about life, mine are like a slice of cake.

A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it.
- Variation: A good film is when the price of the admission, the dinner and the babysitter was well worth it.

Cartoonists have the best casting system. If they don't like an actor, they just tear him up.

Drama is life with the dull bits left out.

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

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

[When accepting the American Film Institute Life Achievement award] "I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville."

I enjoy playing the audience like a piano.

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

I was an uncommonly unattractive young man.

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

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."

In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director.

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.

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.

In the old days villains had moustaches and kicked the dog. Audiences are smarter today. They don’t want their villain to be thrown at them with green limelight on his face. They want an ordinary human being with failings.

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

I'm a philanthropist: I give people what they want. People love being horrified, terrified.

I never said actors were cattle. All I said is that actors should be treated as cattle.

Some of our most exquisite murders have been domestic, performed with tenderness in simple, homey places like the kitchen table

The length of the film should be directly related to the endurance of human bladder.

There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it.
[in reponse to his style of suspense]

There are several differences between a footballl game and a revolution. For one thing, a football game usually lasts longer and the participants wear uniforms. Also there are more injuries at a football game.

[to a woman who complained that the shower scene so frightened her daughter that the girl would no longer shower]:
Then Madam I suggest you have her dry cleaned.

[on why people were fond of his thrillers]:
they like to put their toe in the cold water of fear.

This paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book -- it makes a very poor doorstop.

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

[His entire acceptance speech for the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award] "Thank you."

There is nothing quite so good as burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating.

There is nothing to winning, really. That is, if you happen to be blessed with a keen eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever.

When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, But what's my motivation?, I say, 'Your salary.'

About Hitchcock

Hitch is a gentleman farmer who raises goose flesh. ~ Ingrid Bergman

The man with the navy-blue voice. ~ Barbara Harris (London Observer 6 Aug 76)