On Ernst Lubitsch: He could do more with a closed door than other directors could do with an open fly.
Billy WilderHollywood didn't kill Marilyn Monroe, it's the Marilyn Monroes who are killing Hollywood.
Billy WilderNow, 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 WilderLove is the hardest thing in the world to write about. So simple. You've got to catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house. The ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven's "Pastoral." A letter scribbled on her office stationery that you carry around in your pocket because it smells of all the lilacs in Ohio.
Billy Wilder