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 WILDERFrance is a place where the money falls apart in your hands but you can’t tear the toilet paper.
More Billy Wilder Quotes
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Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon.
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If something smells bad, why put your nose in it?
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One’s too many and a hundred’s not enough.
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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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My Aunt Minnie would always be punctual and never hold up production, but who would pay to see my Aunt Minnie?
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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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If 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.
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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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We are on the track of something absolutely mediocre.
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The best director is the one you don’t see.
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I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut.
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Make subtlety obvious.
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An actor entering through the door, you’ve got nothing. But if he enters through the window, you’ve got a situation.
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A 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.
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If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
BILLY WILDER