Make subtlety obvious.
BILLY WILDER[on pop idol Donny Osmond] He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.
More Billy Wilder Quotes
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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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Shoot a few scenes out of focus. I want to win the foreign film award.
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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 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.
BILLY WILDER -
Develop a clean line of action for your leading character
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The Austrians are brilliant people. They made the world believe that Hitler was a German and Beethoven an Austrian.
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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.
BILLY WILDER -
Well, nobody’s perfect.
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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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The best director is the one you don’t see.
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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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I don’t go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.
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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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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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Hollywood didn’t kill Marilyn Monroe, it’s the Marilyn Monroes who are killing Hollywood.
BILLY WILDER