Top 100 Alfred Hitchcock Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “To make a great film you need three things – the script, the script and the script.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

2. “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

3. “There is something more important than logic: imagination.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

4. “Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

5. “If I won’t be myself, who will?”

— Alfred Hitchcock

6. “Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

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7. “The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

8. “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. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?”

— Alfred Hitchcock

9. “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.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

10. “Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more the excitement.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

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11. “Happiness is a small house, with a big kitchen.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

12. “Puns are the highest form of literature.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

13. “Never turn your back on a friend.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

14. “Our primary function is to create an emotion and our secondary function is to sustain that emotions.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

15. “Revenge is sweet and not fattening.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

16. “Ideas come from everything.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

17. “Self-plagiarism is style.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

18. “In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

19. “Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

20. “The ideal husband understands every word his wife doesn’t say.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

21. “Never judge a country by its politicians.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

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22. “The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

23. “For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

24. “A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

25. “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.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

26. “A woman, I always say, should be like a good suspense movie: The more left to the imagination, the more excitement there is. This should be her aim – to create suspense, to let a man discover things about her without her having to tell him.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

27. “I like stories with lots of psychology.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

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

— Alfred Hitchcock

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

— Alfred Hitchcock

30. “For me, suspense doesn’t have any value if it’s not balanced by humor.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

31. “Give them pleasure – the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

32. “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.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

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

— Alfred Hitchcock

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

— Alfred Hitchcock

35. “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.’”

— Alfred Hitchcock

36. “It’s only a movie, and, after all, we’re all grossly overpaid.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

37. “Seeing a murder on television can help us unload the feelings of hate themselves. If you do not have feelings of hatred, may be obtained in the advertising interval.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

38. “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.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

39. “I enjoy playing the audience like a piano.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

40. “Reality is something that none of us can stand, at any time.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

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

— Alfred Hitchcock

42. “Everything’s perverted in a different way.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

43. “One must never set up a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, as in life.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

44. “In the documentary the basic material has been created by God, whereas in the fiction film the director is a God; he must create life.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

45. “When you can look forward, and the road is clear ahead, and now you are going to create something – that’s as happy as I’d want to be.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

46. “A woman of mystery is one who also has a certain maturity and whose actions speak louder than words. Any woman can be one, if she keeps those two points in mind. She should grow up-and shut up.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

47. “In the old days villains had moustaches and kicked the dog. Audiences are smarter today. They don’t want their villain to be thrown at them with green limelight on his face. They want an ordinary human being with failings.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

48. “I have a perfect cure for a sore throat: cut it.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

49. “I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle.”

— Alfred Hitchcock

50. “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.”

— Alfred Hitchcock