Inimitably, Hitchcock once famously announced a witty suggestion for his epitaph: 'This is what we do to bad little boys.'
The line can be traced back to Hitch's earliest days. As a child, his father once sent Alfred with a letter to the local police station. The officer read the letter and, without further adieu, locked the young boy up for ten minutes. He then let him go, explaining that this is what happens to people who do bad things.

This triggered off sheer terror, and, for the rest of his life, Hitchcock had a severe phobia of the police. This was his reason for never learning to drive; a person who doesn't drive can't be pulled over and given a ticket.

This is also cited as the reason for the recurring 'innocent man' theme in his films.

Eventually, however, the Master of Suspense chuckled even heartier. At his death in 1980, the tombstone, with a final flourish of genius, read: 'I'm in on a plot'.