Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

Una storia è come la vita senza le parti noiose.

A clear horizon — nothing to worry about on your plate, only things that are creative and not destructive and that's within yourself. Within me I can't bear quarreling, I can't bear feelings between people. I think hatred is wasted energy and it's all non-productive. I'm very sensitive. A sharp word, said by a person who has a temper, if they're close to me, hurts me for days. I know we're only human, we do go in for these various emotions, call them negative emotions but when all these are removed and you can look forward, and the road is clear ahead, and now you're going to create something. I think that's as happy as I would ever want to be.

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

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

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

"Mi amor por el cine es más grande que mi moral".

I'm frightened of my own movies.

"There 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."

"You know what I think? I think that . . . we're all stuck in our private traps — clamped in them — and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and we claw, but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch." – Norman Bates from Psycho

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

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

Suspense 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.

Hitchcock: You know that I think all actors are cattle? George Raft: Yes, I know—but I'm no actor.

You can't direct a Laughton picture. The best you can hope for is to referee.

Vale más partir del cliché que llegar a él.