Alfred Hitchcock Quotes & Sayings

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

Never judge a country by its politicians. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

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

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

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

Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders. — 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

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. — 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

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 (Patricia Hitchcock), and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville. — Alfred Hitchcock

I am to provide the public with beneficial shocks. — 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

Ideas come from everything — Alfred Hitchcock

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

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.' — Alfred Hitchcock

What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out. — Alfred Hitchcock

A woman, I always say, should be like a good suspense movie: The more left to the imagination, the more excitement there is. This should be her aim - to create suspense, to let a man discover things about her without her having to tell him. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

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

I was an uncommonly unattractive young man. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them. — 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

Self-plagiarism is style. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

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

The silent pictures were the purest form of cinema — Alfred Hitchcock

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

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

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

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

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

Revenge is sweet and not fattening. — Alfred Hitchcock

Self-plagarism is style. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

I try to offset any tendency towards the macabre with humour. As I see it, this is a typically English form of humour. It's a piece with such jokes as the one about the man who was being led to the gallows to be hanged. He looked at the trap door in the gallows, which was flimsily constructed, and he asked in some alarm, 'I say, is that thing safe? — 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

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

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

Give them pleasure. The same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

This award is meaningful because it comes from my fellow dealers in celluloid. — Alfred Hitchcock

Happiness is a small house, with a big kitchen. — 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 invention of indoor plumbing. It didn't change people's habits. It just kept them inside the house. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

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

In reference to the murder scene in 'Dial M for murder' As you have seen on the screen the best way to do it is with a scissor. — Alfred Hitchcock

A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

Twenty to life, she got, with time off for good behavior. You come around next spring. I'll introduce you. — Alfred Hitchcock

Luck is everything ... My good luck in life was to be a really frightened person. I'm fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn't make a good suspense film. — 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

Puns are the highest form of literature. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

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

It seems to me that television is exactly like a gun. Your enjoyment of it is determined by which end of it you're on. — 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

I always try to look at things as though I were remembering them three years later. — 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

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

Our primary function is to create an emotion and our secondary function is to sustain that emotions. — 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 like stories with lots of psychology. — Alfred Hitchcock

The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture. — 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

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

I've become a body of films, not a man, I am all those films. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

I always take the audience into account. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

I enjoy playing the audience like a piano. — Alfred Hitchcock

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder. — Alfred Hitchcock

Never turn your back on a friend. — Alfred Hitchcock

I have a feeling that inside you somewhere,there's somebody nobody knows about — 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

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

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

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

Weren't you ever booed at by your mother?! — Alfred Hitchcock

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

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

T.V. has brought murder back into the home where it belongs. — 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

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

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

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

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

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

We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like. I have prepared one of my own. I have placed some rather large samples of dynamite, gunpowder, and nitroglycerin. My time capsule is set to go off in the year 3000. It will show them what we are really like. — Alfred Hitchcock

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

Fear isn't so difficult to understand. After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual. — Alfred Hitchcock