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)
A good thriller is like a good meal: it should leave you satisfied but wanting more.
I believe in the public. I believe in the intelligence of the audience.
Happiness does not come in bottles.
I am a man of many moods, but none of them are good.
The art of suspense is to keep the audience on the edge without letting them fall off.
One must never underestimate the power of the unknown.
I prefer to work with actors who can improvise.
The essence of a thriller is the tension between what is and what might be.
Life is like a camera: focus on what's important, capture the good times, develop from the negatives, and if things don't work out, take another shot.
I have always been a great admirer of the criminal mind.
The camera should be a voyeur.
True love is when you believe in the impossible.
I don't trust words. I trust pictures.
Every film should have a beginning, a muddle, and an end.
The only way to succeed is to fail spectacularly.
A good film is when the price of the admission is forgotten.
I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for the body in the coach.
To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script.
Give them pleasure - the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.
The ideal editor is a man who is not an idealist.
Contemporaries of Alfred Hitchcock
Other Film & Theaters born within 50 years of Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980).