A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.
BILLY WILDERShoot a few scenes out of focus. I want to win the foreign film award.
More Billy Wilder Quotes
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Develop a clean line of action for your leading character
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She was an absolute genius as a comedic actress, with an extraordinary sense for comedic dialogue. It was a God-given gift.
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You’re as good as the best thing you’ve ever done.
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After so many drive-in waitresses becoming movie stars, there has been this real drought, when along come class; somebody who actually went to school, can spell, maybe even plays the piano.
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Money makes even bastards legitimate.
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Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.
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[about the Hotel Marmont on Sunset Blvd., a piece of Hollywood history] I would rather sleep in a bathroom than in another hotel.
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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.
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Hollywood didn’t kill Marilyn Monroe, it’s the Marilyn Monroes who are killing Hollywood.
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I had one life. And what did I do? Wasted it in some palooka preliminaries in Spain, just before Hitler and Chamberlain warm up for the main event.
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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.
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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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I met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my life, but you – you’re twenty minutes.
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Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon.
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If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
BILLY WILDER