I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut.
BILLY WILDERI have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut.
BILLY WILDERFrance is a place where the money falls apart in your hands but you can’t tear the toilet paper.
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 WILDERA director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.
BILLY WILDERIf you don’t like what you’re doing, it’s unlikely anyone else will either, so be sure you are happy with your own work first.
BILLY WILDERWell, nobody’s perfect.
BILLY WILDERDevelop a clean line of action for your leading character
BILLY WILDERThe more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
BILLY WILDERYou’re as good as the best thing you’ve ever done.
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 WILDERThe best director is the one you don’t see.
BILLY WILDERHappiness is working with Jack Lemmon.
BILLY WILDERI am big. It’s the pictures that got small.
BILLY WILDERMoney makes even bastards legitimate.
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 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 WILDER