Quotes by Billy Wilder

About Billy Wilder:

Billy Wilder is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. Wilder is one of only five people to have won Academy Awards as producer, director and screenwriter for the same film (The Apartment), and was the first person to accomplish this.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Jerry: Oh, you don't understand, Osgood! Ehhhh... I'm a man. Osgood: Well, nobody's perfect.

Billy Wilder

I mean, it's just sex. It's simple biology, right? You build up tension and stress-- you need to open a valve somewhere and let it out, or you'll explode. Nothing deep and emotional about it, just a bodily function. Like sneezing.' 'Sure,' Kane said,...

Billy Wilder

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

Billy Wilder

I've met a lot of hardboiled eggs in my time, but you're twenty minutes.

Billy Wilder

Shoot a few scenes out of focus. I want to win the foreign film award.

Billy Wilder

France is the country where the money falls apart and you can't tear the toilet paper.

Billy Wilder

France is a place where the money falls apart in your hands but you can't tear the toilet paper.

Billy Wilder

A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.

Billy Wilder

Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon.

Billy Wilder

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

Billy Wilder

If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you.

Billy Wilder

He has Van Gogh's ear for music.

Billy Wilder

The best director is the one you don't see.

Billy Wilder

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.

Billy Wilder

Hollywood didn't kill Marilyn Monroe, it's the Marilyn Monroes who are killing Hollywood.

Billy Wilder

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

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

We are on the track of something absolutely mediocre.

Billy Wilder

I would rather sleep in a bathroom than in another hotel.

Billy Wilder

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

Billy Wilder

Author Bio

  • NameBilly Wilder
  • DescriptionAmerican filmmaker
  • BornJune 22, 1906
  • DiedMarch 27, 2002
  • CountryUnited States Of America; Austria
  • ProfessionScreenwriter; Film Director; Film Producer; Writer; Journalist
  • AwardsAcademy Award For Best Writing (Original Screenplay); Academy Award For Best Director; Grand Cross Of The Order Of Merit Of The Federal Republic Of Germany With Star; Great Golden Medal Of Honour For Services To The Republic Of Austria; National Medal Of Arts; Directors Guild Of America Award