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

— Alfred Hitchcock

A lot of movies are about life, mine are like a slice of cake.

— Alfred Hitchcock

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.

— Alfred Hitchcock

Content, I am not interested in that at all. I don't give a damn what the film is about. I am more interested in how to handle the material to create an emotion in the audience. Furthermore, I find too many people are interested in the content. If you were painting a still life of some apples on a plate, it's like you'd be worrying whether the apples were sweet or sour. Who cares?

— Alfred Hitchcock

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

— Alfred Hitchcock

Fear isn't so difficult to understand. After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual.

— Alfred Hitchcock

Gee, I'm sorry I didn't hear you in all this rain. Go ahead in, please." Anthony Perkins's Norman Bates Talking To Janet Leigh's Marion Crane.

— Alfred Hitchcock

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

— Alfred Hitchcock

Ideas come from everything

— Alfred Hitchcock

I have never known birds of different species to flock together. The very concept is unimaginable. Why, if that happened, we wouldn't stand a chance! How could we possibly hope to fight them?

— Alfred Hitchcock