Alfred Hitchcock
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)
The truth is out there, if you're willing to look for it.
I like to challenge the audience's perceptions. I like to make them think.
The human soul is an eternal flame.
I believe in the power of redemption. Everyone deserves a second chance.
The greatest mystery is life itself.
A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it.
The ideal actor is a man who is a child and an old man at the same time.
Some of our most exquisite murders have been domestic, performed with tenderness in ordinary rooms.
I have a perfect understanding of the human mind, but I don't understand women.
Plausibility is not a matter of fact, but a matter of perception.
The screen is a rectangle. The audience is a rectangle. The story should be a rectangle.
I am scared of women.
I am a man who believes in the power of the visual.
The cinema is an art form that can be used to manipulate the audience.
The audience is always right, but they don't know what they want.
The true art of the cinema is to tell a story without words.
The more you know about a character, the more you can manipulate them.
The only way to make a great film is to make a bad film first.
I like to make films that are like a puzzle.
The cinema is a dream factory.
Contemporaries of Alfred Hitchcock
Other Film & Theaters born within 50 years of Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980).