“Film is such a potent medium that its greatest artists were often astonished by the power of their own creations. “You could look at it forever,” Hitchcock said of one of his own compositions. Hitchcock created forms so eloquent they could bridge the gap between a warped genius and a mainstream audience; his screen world of polished surfaces, neurotic tension, concealed meaning and latent menace seemed vaguely familiar to most of us, if only from our dreams.”

—Hal Crowther, “Movies, Mules and Music,” from the collection Gathering at the river: notes from the post-millenial south, LSU Press, 2005.