02UndatedThe length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
06UndatedThe paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book -- it makes a very poor doorstop.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
07UndatedFear 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.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
08UndatedSuspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more the excitement. ... The conventional big-bosomed blonde is not mysterious. And what could be more obvious than the old black velvet and pearls type? The perfect ‘woman of mystery’ is one who is blonde, subtle and Nordic. ... Although I do not profess to be an authority on women, I fear that the perfect title [for a movie], like the perfect woman is difficult to find.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
09UndatedIn many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I call 'photographs of people talking.' When we tell a story in cinema we should resort to dialogue only when it's impossible to do otherwise. I always try to tell a story in the cinematic way, through a succession of shots and bits of film in between.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
10UndatedSeeing a murder on television... can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
11UndatedTwenty to life, she got, with time off for good behavior. You come around next spring. I'll introduce you.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
12UndatedGee, I'm sorry I didn't hear you in all this rain. Go ahead in, please."Anthony Perkin's Norman BatesTalking To Janet Leigh's Marion Crane.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
13UndatedContent, I am not interested in that at all. I don't give a damn what the film is about. I am more interested in how to handle the material so as to create an emotion in the audience. I find too many people are interested in the content. If you were painting a still life of some apples on a plate, it's like you'd be worrying whether the apples were sweet or sour. Who cares?Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
14UndatedThere is a distinct difference between "suspense" and "surprise," and yet many pictures continually confuse the two. I'll explain what I mean. We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let's suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, "Boom!" There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: "You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!" In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
15UndatedI 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?Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
16UndatedGive them pleasure. The same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
18UndatedI'm sure anyone who likes a good crime, provided it is not the victim.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
22UndatedLuck 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.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
24UndatedWe seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like.Alfred Hitchcock / quote ↗
