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)
Suspense is like a rubber band. You stretch it, and stretch it, and then you let it go.
Some of our best films have been made from the worst novels.
Casting is character and character is plot.
I am scared easily, here is a list of my fears: 1. Small children. 2. Police. 3. High places. 4. My own films.
The picture is the thing. The story is secondary.
I try to get the audience to participate in the picture.
If it's a good story, it can be told.
I have a perfect understanding of the psychology of the audience.
Logic is dull.
I'm a great believer in the power of suggestion.
I don't believe in the 'slice of life' school of filmmaking. I believe in the 'slice of cake' school.
The only way to make a good film is to be a dictator.
What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out?
I am to provide the audience with a good scare.
The more you succeed, the more you are afraid of failure.
I never said all actors are cattle. What I said was all actors should be treated like cattle.
Where the camera goes, the audience's eye goes.
I don't care about the subject matter; I care about the way it's handled.
I am full of fears and I make films to get rid of them.
A man's got to have a hobby.
Contemporaries of Alfred Hitchcock
Other Film & Theaters born within 50 years of Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980).