Quotes from Alfred Hitchcock

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

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.

I've become a body of films, not a man, I am all those films.

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

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.'

Never judge a country by its politicians.

Actually, I have no regard for money. Aside from its purchasing power, it's completely useless as far as I'm concerned.

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

Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food.

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.

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

Happiness is a small house, with a big kitchen.

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

For me, suspense doesn't have any value if it's not balanced by humor.

There is something more important than logic: imagination

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

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

Revenge is sweet and not fattening.

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

Drama is like life with the dull bits cut out.

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

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

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.

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