The only pictures worth making are the ones that are playing with fire.
BILLY WILDERThe only pictures worth making are the ones that are playing with fire.
BILLY WILDERYou have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning.
BILLY WILDERI 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 WILDERI 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 WILDERDevelop a clean line of action for your leading character
BILLY WILDERI just always think, ‘Do I like it?’ And if I like it, maybe other people will come and like it too.
BILLY WILDERFilm’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 WILDERAn actor entering through the door, you’ve got nothing. But if he enters through the window, you’ve got a situation.
BILLY WILDERIf you’re going to tell people the truth, be funny or they’ll kill you.
BILLY WILDERYou’re as good as the best thing you’ve ever done.
BILLY WILDERI am big. It’s the pictures that got small.
BILLY WILDERShe 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 WILDERHappiness is working with Jack Lemmon.
BILLY WILDEROne’s too many and a hundred’s not enough.
BILLY WILDERA 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 WILDERI just made pictures I would’ve liked to see.
BILLY WILDER