[When accepting the American Film Institute Life Achievement award] I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat (Patricia Hitchcock), and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville.

I like stories with lots of psychology.

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

Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.

Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?

I always try to look at things as though I were remembering them three years later.

Revenge is sweet and not fattening.