“The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book – it makes a very poor doorstop.”

Seeing a murder on television can help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.

Seeing a murder on television can help us unload the feelings of hate themselves. If you do not have feelings of hatred, may be obtained in the advertising interval.

In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man.

Our primary function is to create an emotion and our secondary function is to sustain that emotions.

A woman, I always say, should be like a good suspense movie: The more left to the imagination, the more excitement there is. This should be her aim – to create suspense, to let a man discover things about her without her having to tell him.

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

There is something more important than logic: imagination.

I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.

I like stories with lots of psychology.

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

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

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

Never judge a country by its politicians.

I always take the audience into account.

You think she’s pretty, you ought to see my slingshot!

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.

I tried every diet in the book. I tried some that weren’t in the book. I tried eating the book. It tasted better than most of the diets.

Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out.

The Bible was composed in such a way that as beginners mature, its meaning grows with them.

It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.

I walked into my own book, seeking peace. It was night, and I made a careless movement inside the dream; I turned too brusquely the corner and I bruised myself against my madness.

You can make anything by writing.

You have to be a speedy reader because there’s so so much to read.

My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.