WILDER!

This is just the week of Billy Wilder I guess. The more I think about him, the more grateful I am that he existed.

The book Conversations With Wilder (there's a link somewhere on the right) is all the film school you need.

Instead of one "Quote of the Day", here are a bunch from my favorite writer/director of all time-

(Also, if you haven't already, scroll down and check out his top ten screenwriting tips).

“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.”

“I just always think, "Do I like it?" And if I like it, maybe other people will come and like it too.”

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

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

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

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

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

“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.”