Billy Wilder

Film’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? Writers became much more important when sound came in, but they’ve had to put up a valiant fight to get the credit they deserve.

What critics call dirty in our pictures, they call lusty in foreign films.

I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut.

Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon.

Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.

I'd worship the ground you walked on if only you walked in a better neighborhood.

He has Van Gogh's ear for music.

It was hell at the time, but after it was over, it was wonderful.

I am big. It's the pictures that got small.

My Aunt Minnie would always be punctual and never hold up production, but who would pay to see my Aunt Minnie?

You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning.

They've tried to manufacture other Marilyn Monroes and they will undoubtedly keep trying. But it won't work. She was an original.

An actor entering through the door, you've got nothing. But if he enters through the window, you've got a situation.

Don't be too clever for an audience. Make it obvious. Make the subtleties obvious also.

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.

The only pictures worth making are the ones that are playing with fire.

If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.

She was an absolute genius as a comedic actress, with an extraordinary sense for comedic dialogue. It was a God-given gift. Believe me, in the last fifteen years there were ten projects that came to me, and I'd start working on them and I'd think, 'It's not going to work, it needs Marilyn Monroe.' Nobody else is in that orbit; everyone else is earthbound by comparison.

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.