If you’re going to tell people the truth, be funny or they’ll kill you.
BILLY WILDERI don’t go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.
More Billy Wilder Quotes
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You know, that stuff about pink elephants, that’s the bunk. It’s little animals. Little tiny turkeys in straw hats. Midget monkeys coming through the keyholes.
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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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I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.
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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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I just made pictures I would’ve liked to see.
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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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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.
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Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon.
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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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Hollywood didn’t kill Marilyn Monroe, it’s the Marilyn Monroes who are killing Hollywood.
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I, you know, am all over the place – every category of pictures I have made, good, bad or indifferent.
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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.
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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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Jerry: Oh, you don’t understand, Osgood! Ehhhh… I’m a man. Osgood: Well, nobody’s perfect.
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I don’t go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.
BILLY WILDER






