I didn't hang around films. I don't know if I'd ever seen Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes.

Robert Walker as Bruno was excellent. He had elegance and humor, and the proper fondness for his mother

But there were too many points at which the other self could invade the self he wanted to preserve, and there were too many forms of invasion: certain words, sounds, lights, actions his hands or feet performed, and if he did nothing at all, heard and saw nothing, the shouting of some triumphant inner voice that shocked him and cowed him.

Each book is, in a sense, an argument with myself, and I would write it, whether it is ever published or not.

The first person you should think of pleasing, in writing a book, is yourself. If you can amuse yourself for the length of time it takes to write a book, the publisher and the readers can and will come later.

I was in New York. Hitchcock was in California. He rang me to make a report on his progress and said, I'm having trouble. I've just sacked my second screenwriter

Perhaps it was freedom itself that choked her.