You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning.
– Billy Wilder
I was the only director who ever made two pictures with Marilyn Monroe. Forget the Oscar,
I deserve the Purple Heart.
– Billy Wilder
Today we spend 80 percent of the time making deals and 20 percent making pictures.
– Billy Wilder
What critics call dirty in our movies, they call lusty in foreign films.
– Billy Wilder
France is the only country where the money falls apart and you can’t tear the toilet paper.
– Billy Wilder
If there’s anything I hate more than not being taken seriously, it’s being taken too seriously.
– Billy Wilder
A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.
– Billy Wilder
I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt
have right of final cut.
– Billy Wilder
I just made pictures I would’ve liked to see.
– Billy Wilder
No good deed goes unpunished.
– Billy Wilder
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.
– Billy Wilder
You’re only as good as the best thing you’ve ever done.
– Billy Wilder
People copy, people steal. Most of the pictures they make nowadays are loaded down with
special effects. I couldn’t do that. I quit smoking because I couldn’t reload my Zippo.
– Billy Wilder
If you’re going to tell people the truth, be funny or they’ll kill you.
– Billy Wilder
I’d worship the ground you walked on if only you walked in a better neighborhood.
– Billy Wilder
I’ve met a lot of hardboiled eggs in my time, but you’re twenty minutes!
– Billy Wilder
Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else’s.
– Billy Wilder
Of course, there must be subtleties. Just make sure you make them obvious.
– Billy Wilder