Top 77 Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

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Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most iconic figures in film. With that in mind, check out the top 77 Alfred Hitchcock quotes that will give you a peak into his thought process.

#77 – 70. Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

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

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

75. I have a feeling that inside you somewhere,there’s somebody nobody knows about

74. I have a perfect cure for a sore throat: cut it.

73. Fear isn’t so difficult to understand. After all, weren’t we all frightened as children?

72. I’m full of fears and I do my best to avoid difficulties and any kind of complications. I like everything around me to be clear as crystal and completely calm.

71. There is nothing so good as a burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating.

70. I enjoy playing the audience like a piano.

#69 – 60. Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

69. Mystery is an intellectual process. But suspense is essentially an emotional process.

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

67. I’ve never been very keen on women who hang their sex round their neck like baubles. I think it should be discovered. It’s more interesting to discover the sex in a woman than it is to have it thrown at you, like a Marilyn Monroe or those types. To me they are rather vulgar and obvious.

66. There is nothing quite so good as burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating.

65. The ideal husband understands every word his wife doesn’t say.

64. Reality is something that none of us can stand, at any time.

63. I have never known birds of different species to flock together. The very concept is unimaginable. Why, if that happened, we wouldn’t stand a chance! How could we possibly hope to fight them?

62. Give them pleasure. The same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.

61. One must never set up a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, as in life.

60. The silent pictures were the purest form of cinema.

#59 – 50. Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

59. Seeing a murder on television… can help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.

58. Ideas come from everything

57. Puns are the highest form of literature.

56. The picture’s over. Now I have to go and put it on film.

55. In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director.

54. People don’t always express their inner thoughts to one another; a conversation may be quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a person really thinks or feels.

53. Our primary function is to create an emotion and our secondary function is to sustain that emotion.

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

51. Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human.

50. What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out.

#49 – 40. Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

49. Man does not live by murder alone. He needs affection, approval, encouragement, and, occasionally, a hearty meal.

48. If I won’t be myself, who will?

47. I’m sure anyone who likes a good crime, provided it is not the victim.

46. It seems to me that television is exactly like a gun. Your enjoyment of it is determined by which end of it you’re on.

45. There’s nothing to winning, really. That is if you happen to be blessed with a keen eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever.

44. There is nothing to winning, really. That is, if you happen to be blessed with a keen eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever.

43. Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more the excitement.

42. If you can’t do it naturally, then fake it.

41. I’m sure anyone who likes a good crime, provided it is not the victim.

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

#39 – 30. Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

39. Revenge is sweet and not fattening.

38. T.V. has brought murder back into the home where it belongs.

37. If I won’t be myself, who will?

36. Television is like the American toaster, you push the button and the same thing pops up every time.

35. Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing. It didn’t change people’s habits. It just kept them inside the house.

34. 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.

33. I’m not against the police; I’m just afraid of them.

32. Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.

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

30. There is something more important than logic: imagination.

#29 – 20. Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

29. I have a feeling that inside you somewhere, there’s somebody nobody knows about.

28. When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt in the future. So the fearful past causes a fearful future and the past and future become one.

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

26. I’m a writer and, therefore, automatically a suspicious character.

25. The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.

24. I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle.

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

22. Seeing a murder on television can help work off one’s antagonisms.

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

20. Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn’t have to cope with the actors and all the rest.

#19 – 10. Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

19. I can’t read fiction without visualizing every scene. The result is it becomes a series of pictures rather than a book.

18. When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, ‘It’s in the script.’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?, ‘ I say, ‘Your salary.’

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

16. Never judge a country by its politicians.

15. In films, murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man.

14. Luck is everything. My good luck in life was to be a really frightened person. I’m fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn’t make a good suspense film.

13. The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book — it makes a very poor doorstop.

12. A woman who spends all day washing and cooking and ironing don’t want to go to the movies to watch a film about a woman who spends all day washing and cooking and ironing.

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

10. Love those wrongdoers, they need it more than you.

#9 – 1. Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

9. Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

8. 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.

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

6. It’s only a movie, and, after all, we’re all grossly overpaid.

5. Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.

4. I am to provide the public with beneficial shocks.

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

2. If it’s a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.

1. The best actor is the man who can do nothing extremely well.

Ideas for the top 77 Alfred Hitchcock quotes come from the following sources.^[1]goodreads – Alfred Hitchcock^[2]GreatingCard Poet – Alfred Hitchcock Quote: Famous, Filmmaking and Movies