Alfred Hitchcock

Film & Theater English-American 1899 – 1980 313 quotes

Master of suspense

Most quoted

"The audience is like a giant organ that you and I are playing. At one moment we play this note and get this reaction, and then we play that chord and they react that way. And someday we won't even have to make a movie — there'll be electrodes implanted in their brains, and we'll just press different buttons and they'll go 'ooooh' and 'aaahh' and we'll frighten them, and make them laugh. Won't that be wonderful?"

— from Interview with François Truffaut, 1966

"I'm scared 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."

— from Interview

"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."

— from Interview

All quotes by Alfred Hitchcock (313)

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.

Interview 1964

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

Interview 1960

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

Interview 1960

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

Interview 1960

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

Interview 1960

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

Interview 1959

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

Interview 1960

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

Interview 1960

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

Interview 1959

Revenge is sweet and not fattening.

Interview 1960

I enjoy playing the audience like a piano.

Interview 1960

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

Interview 1960

I don't say all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle.

Interview 1960

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

Interview 1960

Fear isn't so difficult to understand. After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since then.

Interview 1960

The ideal actor is a man who is a child, a woman who is a child, and an animal who is a child.

Interview 1960

I am scared of the police. I am scared of the dark. I am scared of being alone. I am scared of being in a crowd.

Interview 1960

I like stories where the hero is in danger, and the audience is in suspense.

Interview 1960

I try to get the audience to participate in the film, to be frightened, to be excited, to be amused.

Interview 1960

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

Interview 1960