If something smells bad, why put your nose in it?
BILLY WILDERIf you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
More Billy Wilder Quotes
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I just always think, ‘Do I like it?’ And if I like it, maybe other people will come and like it too.
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Hollywood didn’t kill Marilyn Monroe, it’s the Marilyn Monroes who are killing Hollywood.
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I never overestimate the audience, nor do I underestimate them. I just have a very rational idea as to who we’re dealing with, and that we’re not making a picture for Harvard Law School.
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Ah, Marilyn, Hollywood’s Joan of Arc, our Ultimate Sacrificial Lamb. Well, let me tell you, she was mean, terribly mean. The meanest woman I have ever known in this town.
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France is a place where the money falls apart in your hands but you can’t tear the toilet paper.
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Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. So simple. You’ve got to catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house.
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I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.
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Jerry: Oh, you don’t understand, Osgood! Ehhhh… I’m a man. Osgood: Well, nobody’s perfect.
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If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
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Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon.
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You’re as good as the best thing you’ve ever done.
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I hate that word. It’s return–a return to the millions of people who’ve never forgiven me for deserting the screen.
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If there’s anything I hate more than not being taken seriously, it’s being taken too seriously.
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The only pictures worth making are the ones that are playing with fire.
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Writers became much more important when sound came in, but they’ve had to put up a valiant fight to get the credit they deserve.
BILLY WILDER






