“I’m a writer and, therefore, automatically a suspicious character.”

Reality is something that none of us can stand, at any time.

A woman who spends all day washing and cooking and ironing doesn’t want to go to the movies to watch a film about a woman who spends all day washing and cooking and ironing.

If it’s a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.

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

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

The picture’s over. Now I have to go and put it on film.

To make a great film you need three things – the script, the script and the script.

Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn’t have to cope with the actors and all the rest.

In the old days villains had moustaches and kicked the dog. Audiences are smarter today. They don’t want their villain to be thrown at them with green limelight on his face. They want an ordinary human being with failings.

I enjoy playing the audience like a piano.

I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle.

Claude Jade is a brave nice young lady. But I don’t give any guarantee what she will do on a taxi’s back seat.

I am to provide the public with beneficial shocks.

I’m full of fears and I do my best to avoid difficulties and any kind of complications. I like everything around me to be clear as crystal and completely calm.

Mystery is an intellectual process. But suspense is essentially an emotional process.

When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, ‘It’s in the script.’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?, ‘ I say, ‘Your salary.’

Our words reveal our thoughts; our manners mirror our self-esteem; our actions reflect our character; our habits predict the future.

You possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing.

A human-being is not a human-being while his tendencies include self-indulgence, covetousness, temper and attacking other people.

What we need in appointive positions is men of knowledge and experience who have sufficient character to resist temptations.

Characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

I am no longer going to become a fictional character to please people. That’s too much work.

Being called very, very difficult is the beginning of success. Until you’re called very, very difficult you’re really nobody at all.

One or two of these scoundrel statesmen should be shot once a-year, just to keep the others on their good behavior.