OUGD401 - From Theory to Practice : Alfred Hitchcock Quotes

Hitchcock once said that he migrated to the US as a kind of cultural exchange, only nobody knows what was sent in return because, said Hitch "they are afraid to open it"

On actors and actreses:

Ingrid Bergman, triying to make Hitchcock help her understand the motivation for the feelings of her character told Hitchcock:

I dont feel like that, I dont think
I can give you that kind of emotion

and Hitchcock replied:

Ingrid -- Fake It

To anthony Perkins: Don't wory Tony, it's only a movie

When an actress asked Hitchcock if her right or left profile was better, he told her, "My dear, you're sitting on your best profile."

"Actors are cattle"

"I didn't say actors are cattle. What I said was, actors should be treated like cattle."

To crew complaints that Tallulah Bankhead's habit of not wearing underpants was creating camera angle problems in shooting Lifeboat:
I don't know if this is a matter for the costume department or the hairdresser.

"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.'"

"Disney has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor he just tears him up."

"The best way to do it is with scissors"

On the relationship with his audiences:

To a woman who complained that the shower scene so frightened her daughter that the girl would no longer shower:
"Then Madam I suggest you have her dry cleaned."

On why people were fond of his thrillers:
"they like to put their toe in the cold water of fear."

"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible"

"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder"

On murder on TV:

"Seeing a murder on television can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some."

"Television has brought murder back into the home - where it belongs"

On his movies and his method:

Reporter: What is the deepest logic of your films?
Hitchcock: To put the audience through them

On his mission in life:
"to simply scare the hell out of people."

"To me Psycho was a big comedy. Had to be."

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

"If I were to make another picture set in Australia I'd have a policeman hop into the pocket of a kangaroo and yell, Follow that car!"

"We try to tell a good story and develop a hefty plot. Themes emerge as we go along"

"Drama is life with the dull bits left out"

On violence:

"Some of our most exquisite murders have been domestic, performed with tenderness in simple, homey places like the kitchen table"

"There are several differences between a footballl game and a revolution. For one thing, a football game usually lasts longer and the participants wear uniforms. Also there are more injuries at a football game."

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

His dry wit:

"This paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book -- it makes a very poor doorstop."

"I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the manmade sound never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig."