Quote

An audience is never wrong. An individual member of it may be an imbecile, but a thousand imbeciles together in the dark - that is critical genius.

Billy Wilder

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Billy Wilder
Age: 95 †
Born: 1906
Born: June 22
Died: 2002
Died: March 27
Film Director
Film Producer
Filmmaker
Journalist
Screenwriter
Writer
Samuel Wilder
Dark
Imbecile
Wrong
Imbeciles
Individual
Member
Together
Critical
May
Members
Work
Genius
Never
Thousand
Audience

More quotes by Billy Wilder

Image
[on pop idol Donny Osmond] He has Van Gogh's ear for music.
Billy Wilder
Image
If something smells bad, why put your nose in it?
Billy Wilder
Image
I 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, we’re making a picture for middle-class people, the people that you see on the subway, or the people that you see in a restaurant. Just normal people.
Billy Wilder
Image
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
Image
I just always think, 'Do I like it?' And if I like it, maybe other people will come and like it too.
Billy Wilder
Image
If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
Billy Wilder
Image
A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.
Billy Wilder
Image
Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's.
Billy Wilder
Image
Shoot a few scenes out of focus. I want to win the foreign film award.
Billy Wilder
Image
The ultimate trick is to convince, persuade. Every single person out there is an idiot, but collectively they're a genius.
Billy Wilder
Image
Well, nobody's perfect.
Billy Wilder
Image
I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut.
Billy Wilder
Image
Develop a clean line of action for your leading character
Billy Wilder
Image
The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
Billy Wilder
Image
You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning.
Billy Wilder
Image
If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you.
Billy Wilder
Image
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 Wilder
Image
I just made pictures I would've liked to see.
Billy Wilder
Image
I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.
Billy Wilder
Image
Marilyn was mean. Terribly mean. The meanest woman I have ever met around this town. I have never met anybody as mean as Marilyn Monroe or as utterly fabulous on the screen.
Billy Wilder