Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

“Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are God.”

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

“A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it.”

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

“A movie should be as long as one can hold their bladder.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Actors are cattle.”

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

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

“Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.”

“An axe 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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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?”

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

“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.”

“Disney has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor he just tears him up.”

“Drama is life with the dull parts left out.”

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

“Everything's perverted in a different way.”

“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.”

“Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders.”

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

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

“Give them pleasure – the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.”

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

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