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

One must never set up a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, as in life.

I can't read fiction without visualizing every scene. The result is it becomes a series of pictures rather than a book.

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

I don't understand why we have to experiment with film. I think everything should be done on paper. A musician has to do it, a composer. He puts a lot of dots down and beautiful music comes out. And I think that students should be taught to visualize. That's the one thing missing in all this. The one thing that the student has got to do is to learn that there is a rectangle up there - a white rectangle in a theater - and it has to be filled.

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

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