Daily Inspiration Quote by David Cronenberg

Control is the oldest seduction in cinema, and Cronenberg knows exactly why Hitchcock made it sound like a brag. Calling himself a puppeteer isn’t just a cheeky metaphor for “good directing”; it’s a declaration of dominance. Hitchcock framed the audience as bodies to be engineered - flinching on cue, gasping on cue, laughing when the pressure valve opens. That language flatters the director twice: it elevates craft into mastery, and it recasts viewers not as collaborators in meaning but as material.

Cronenberg’s phrasing is doing quiet double work. “Liked to think” and “had that kind of control” introduce skepticism without breaking the spell. It implies that Hitchcock’s famous omnipotence is partly a performance - a self-myth built for interviews, marketing, and a studio system that rewarded auteurs who could package their authority as charisma. Hitchcock sold suspense like a product and himself as the brand’s proprietor; the puppeteer image is perfect publicity because it turns manipulation into artistry rather than insult.

The subtext also nods to the real limit Hitchcock couldn’t fully command: the audience’s interior life. You can choreograph attention with framing, editing, and sound, but you can’t guarantee interpretation. Some viewers resist, misread, or enjoy the “strings” as strings - taking pleasure in the mechanics. Coming from Cronenberg, a director obsessed with bodily vulnerability and technological intrusion, the line lands as both admiration and warning: cinema can be an instrument of control, but the fantasy of total control is itself the most revealing thriller.