I had thought of writing, actually, and that later on I'd be a novelist.

All film directors, whether famous or obscure, regard themselves as misunderstood or underrated. Because of that, they all lie. They're obliged to overstate their own importance.

But the cinephile is … a neurotic! (That’s not a pejorative term.) The Bronte sisters were neurotic, and it’s because they were neurotic that they read all those books and became writers. The famous French advertising slogan that says, “When you love life, you go to the movies,” it’s false! It’s exactly the opposite: when you don’t love life, or when life doesn’t give you satisfaction, you go to the movies.

Hitchcock loves to be misunderstood, because he has based his whole life around misunderstandings.

At first, I wasn't sure whether I'd be a critic or a filmmaker, but I knew it would be something like that.

In love, women are professionals, men are amateurs.

The film of tomorrow will not be directed by civil servants of the camera, but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a wonderful and thrilling adventure.