There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.
Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders.
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.
Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. That story can be an improbable one, but it should never be banal. It must be dramatic and human. What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?
A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality.
Give them pleasure – the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.
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.’
The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.
I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.
Even my failures make money and become classics a year after I make them.
Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food.
Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.
Ideas come from everything.
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.
One must never set up a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, as in life.
People don’t always express their inner thoughts to one another; a conversation may be quite trivial, but often the eyes will reveal what a person really thinks or feels.
The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them.
Reality is something that none of us can stand, at any time.
When you can look forward, and the road is clear ahead, and now you are going to create something – that’s as happy as I’d want to be.