Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

One of television's great contributions is that it brought murder back into the home, where it belongs.

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

I deny that I ever said actors are cattle. What I said was, "Actors should be treated like cattle."

We do not recommend suicide as a way of life.

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.

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

The Birds could be the most terrifying motion picture I have ever made.

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

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

Deep inside, I am a shy man. And in the presence of colorful characters, I am a clam. I never try to out-eccentric the eccentricsǃ

Actors are cattle. I've always said actors are cattle. In fact, Carole Lombard once built a corral on set and put three live calves into it, in recognition of my feelings. I tell them that, and treat them as such, and we get along fineǃ

The lower lip definitely states that all actors are cattle—including the authorǃ

It still goes. But Pat is the nicest cattle I've ever seen.

[T]he director passed off the phrase as one of his "Machiavellian quips," not to be taken seriously. "Let us say, rather, that actors are a necessary evil," he cautioned, with a straight face. "As a matter of fact, I couldn't work if I weren't on friendly terms with them; I'll bend over backward every time. Besides, I get into each picture I make, if only for a couple of seconds—so I'm probably a frustrated actor at heart myself."

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