Now, what is it which makes a scene interesting? If you see a man coming through a doorway, it means nothing. If you see him coming through a window – that is at once interesting.
BILLY WILDERShe was an absolute genius as a comedic actress, with an extraordinary sense for comedic dialogue. It was a God-given gift.
More Billy Wilder Quotes
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They’ve tried to manufacture other Marilyn Monroes and they will undoubtedly keep trying. But it won’t work. She was an original.
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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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God save me from myself.
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I have never met anyone as utterly mean as Marilyn Monroe. Nor as utterly fabulous on the screen, and that includes Garbo.
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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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The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
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You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning.
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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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If you don’t like what you’re doing, it’s unlikely anyone else will either, so be sure you are happy with your own work first.
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Marilyn was mean. Terribly mean. The meanest woman I have ever met around this town. I have never met anybody as mean as Marilyn Monroe or as utterly fabulous on the screen.
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Well, nobody’s perfect.
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The ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven’s “Pastoral.” A letter scribbled on her office stationery that you carry around in your pocket because it smells of all the lilacs in Ohio.
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My Aunt Minnie would always be punctual and never hold up production, but who would pay to see my Aunt Minnie?
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Shoot a few scenes out of focus. I want to win the foreign film award.
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If you’re going to tell people the truth, be funny or they’ll kill you.
BILLY WILDER