KGB Report

Robert Albert Bloch (April 5, 1917 – September 23, 1994) was a prolific American fiction writer, primarily of crime, horror, fantasy and science fiction, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock. He wrote that "Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk," (a quote borrowed by Stephen King and often misattributed to him). (Click here for full Wikipedia article)

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A boy's best friend is his mother.

A foolish man tells a woman to stop talking, but a wise man tells her that her mouth is extremely beautiful when her lips are closed.

Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.

Friendship is like peeing on yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings.

Funny how we take it for granted that we know all there is to know about another person, just because we see them frequently or because of some strong emotional tie.

Horror is the removal of masks.

How can we be sure that our smug conceptions of reality actually exist? To one man in a million dreadful knowledge is revealed, and the rest of us remain mercifully ignorant.

Hutchison's Law: Any occurrence requiring undivided attention will be accompanied by a compelling distraction.

I always carry a pistol when I go (to the New York Public Library). Never did trust those stone lions.

I haven't had this much fun since the rats ate my baby sister.

I think perhaps all of us go a little crazy at times.

Life is only a bedtime story before a long, long sleep.

Magic- that's just a label, you know. Completely meaningless. It wasn't so very long ago that people were saying that electricity was magic.

Mothers sometimes are overly possessive, but not all children allow themselves to be possessed.

So I had this problem- work or starve. So I thought I'd combine the two and decided to become a writer.

So much for modern science and its wonderful discoveries that just about everything can kill you.

The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.

There's nothing to this telepathy business. It's all in the mind.

We all go a little mad sometimes.

We're all not quite as sane as we pretend to be.

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(April 5 is also the birthday of Booker T. Washington, Thomas Hobbes, and Bette Davis.)

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Categories: Psycho, Quotes of the day, Robert Bloch

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Quotes of the day, and murder in a shower- Alfred Hitchcock:
 
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. On 19 April 1955, he became an American citizen while remaining a British subject.

Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style. He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing. His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside "icy blonde" female characters. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime, although many of the mysteries function as decoys or "MacGuffins" meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones. Through his cameo appearances in his own films, interviews, film trailers, and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he became a cultural icon. (Click for full article.)

Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.

Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.

Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

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

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

In the documentary the basic material has been created by God, whereas in the fiction film the director is a God; he must create life.

It's not true that I said “actors are cattle.” I said “they should be treated like cattle.”

I'm frightened of eggs, worse than frightened, they revolt me. That white round thing without any holes- have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking and spilling its yellow liquid? Blood is jolly, red. But egg yolk is yellow, revolting. I've never tasted it.

I'm not against the police; I'm just afraid of them.

Never judge a country by its politicians.

One of television's great contributions is that it brought murder back into the home, where it belongs.

Puns are the highest form of literature.

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.

Self-plagiarism is style.

Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.

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

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.

The only way to get rid of my fears is to make movies about them.

There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it.

There is nothing quite so good as burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating.

There's nothing to winning, really. That is, if you happen to be blessed with a keen eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever.

This paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book- it makes a very poor doorstop.

(YouTube video: The infamous shower scene from Hitchcock's classic "Psycho." Happy Monday!)

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Categories: Alfred Hitchcock, Movies, Psycho, Video, YouTube

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