Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

40 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

Alfred Hitchcock
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.

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

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
[This award is] meaningful because it comes from my fellow dealers in celluloid.
On receiving American Film Institute's 1979 Lifetime Achievement Award

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
Give them pleasure – the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.
On audiences

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
Grace Kelly's apparent frigidity was like a mountain covered with snow, but that mountain was a volcano.

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

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

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

Alfred Hitchcock
If you've designed a picture correctly, the Japanese audience should scream at the same time as the Indian audience.

Alfred Hitchcock