Hitch and Coe

Jonathan Coe in the Sunday Times:

Offhand, although I could quote a dozen lines of dialogue from Billy Wilder's movies, say, I cannot call to mind a single line from one of Hitchcock's. With Hitchcock, everybody talks about their favourite sequences, not their favourite lines...

Er... it's fine for him to say what he can and can't do. But he shouldn't generalize like that. Here are five (off the top of my head) from two favourite Hitchcock movies.

From North By Northwest...

1. 'Yes, a joke. We'll laugh in the car.'

2. 'You gentlemen aren't really trying to kill my son, are you?'

3. 'Who are those people living in your house?'

From Psycho...

4. 'You know what I do about unhappiness? I buy it off'.

5. 'A boy's best friend is his mother.'