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We’re making a picture for middle-class people, the people that you see on the subway, or the people that you see in a restaurant. Just normal people.

Billy Wilder

I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.
BILLY WILDER

Great Year Hollywood Films Movie
The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
BILLY WILDER

Hiding Plot Subtle
If there’s anything I hate more than not being taken seriously, it’s being taken too seriously.
BILLY WILDER

Hate Seriously Taken
The Austrians are brilliant people. They made the world believe that Hitler was a German and Beethoven an Austrian.
BILLY WILDER

Believe People World
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.
BILLY WILDER

Hit House Morning Rain Writing
Develop a clean line of action for your leading character
BILLY WILDER

Action Character Lines
Money makes even bastards legitimate.
BILLY WILDER

Bastard Legitimate Make Money
The forest of Compiegne. Look at it. Like a kind grandmother dozing in her rocking chair. Old trees practicing curtsies in the wind because they still think Louis XIV is king.
BILLY WILDER

Grandmother Kings Old Thinking Tree
Eighty percent of a picture is writing, the other twenty percent is the execution, such as having the camera on the right spot and being able to afford to have good actors in all parts.
BILLY WILDER

Able Actors Camera Writing
I, you know, am all over the place – every category of pictures I have made, good, bad or indifferent.
BILLY WILDER

Bored Category Moved People
You’re as good as the best thing you’ve ever done.
BILLY WILDER

Best Things Done
If something smells bad, why put your nose in it?
BILLY WILDER

Bad Noses Smell
The best director is the one you don’t see.
BILLY WILDER

Directors Inspirational Motivational
Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.
BILLY WILDER

Funny History Luck
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.
BILLY WILDER

Class Deal Law School Underestimate
If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
BILLY WILDER

Firsts Real Writing

We’re making a picture for middle-class people, the people that you see on the subway, or the people that you see in a restaurant. Just normal people.

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We’re making a picture for middle-class people, the people that you see on the subway, or the people that you see in a restaurant. Just normal people.

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Popular Authors

More Billy Wilder Quotes