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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

If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
BILLY WILDER

Firsts Real Writing
[about the Hotel Marmont on Sunset Blvd., a piece of Hollywood history] I would rather sleep in a bathroom than in another hotel.
BILLY WILDER

Bathroom Hotel Sleep Sunset
I just made pictures I would’ve liked to see.
BILLY WILDER

Like Made Picture
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.
BILLY WILDER

Country People Ring Smell Sound Stationery Telephone
Film’s thought of as a director’s medium because the director creates the end product that appears on the screen. It’s that stupid auteur theory again, that the director is the author of the film. But what does the director shoot-the telephone book?
BILLY WILDER

Book Director Fighting Stupid Theory
A bad play folds and is forgotten, but in pictures we don’t bury our dead. When you think it’s out of your system, your daughter sees it on television and says, My father is an idiot.
BILLY WILDER

Daughter Father Thinking
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 just always think, ‘Do I like it?’ And if I like it, maybe other people will come and like it too.
BILLY WILDER

Always People Think Thinking
She may be a wispy, thin little thing, but when you see that girl, you know you’re really in the presence of something. In that league there’s only ever been Garbo, and the other Hepburn, and maybe Bergman. It’s a rare quality, but boy, do you know when you’ve found it.
BILLY WILDER

League Little Understand Really Something
Well, nobody’s perfect.
BILLY WILDER

Gender Nobody Perfect Well
The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
BILLY WILDER

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

Great Year Hollywood Films Movie
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
You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning.
BILLY WILDER

Dream Good Inspiration Morning
I’m delighted with it, because it used to be that films were the lowest form of art. Now we’ve got something to look down on.
BILLY WILDER

Art Looks Television

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