Billy Wilder Quotes

I know that if a film is ready to emerge out of what I write, I'll be able to go off and make it without asking anyone's permission.

I'm an entertainer, so in whatever form I entertain... The thing about being a rapper is that you have more control over your form, whereas with acting you have to compromise a lot.

I make movies I want to see.

The ultimate thing is creating your own stuff and making projects for yourself. That's what Seth Rogen does. He's writing and producing a lot of the movies that he's the lead in.

I think that, with anything creative, you should have the freedom to experiment, and that experimentation means not feeling totally responsible for how other people perceive it.

If Steven Spielberg brought me a movie four hours long and said, 'It has to go out this way,' I guarantee you that's the way it would go out.

'Playing House' works because we're being supremely honest to what we think is funny and not what we think other people think is funny.

My way into making movies - into making things is general - has been through performing.

I am interested in entertaining people, in bringing pleasure, particularly laughter, to others, rather than being concerned with "expressing" myself with obscure creative impressions.

I never watched a frame of the film until it was finished.

I write about what I want to write about, and so the film comes out as a very personal expression even if its subject matter is totally prefabricated.

We started gearing our content more to what makes us laugh and stories we wanted to tell, and we had to decide, early on, to not be precious about it.

Why should I waste my good time making a straight dramatic film? The people who can't make you laugh can do that.

It's really tough to make a name for yourself without compromising and without fitting yourself into a real specific mold. When I made the choice that I would be involved in every aspect of music and not necessarily make music for radio or MTV, I was saying, 'OK, this is me. You decide who it is.'

Any time you turn off and let someone else make any artistic decision for you, you make a mistake.

You're the artist - you make the music that you want to make.

When I did TV shows and my other movies, I never try to do it for anybody. I just do what I think is good no matter what the genre is.

The genius must have his freedom and his independence.

My only goal is to make the crew laugh, basically. It's the only litmus I have to know, is this good or not?

Comedy's been really liberating for me because I've been able to sneak the singing part in through the back door.

The authenticity aspect is pretty important to me. When we have to compromise and do something that's not authentic, it really rubs me, every time I have to see it in the edit, which is millions of times.

We live in a fun time with so many ways to express yourself, you would be crazy to be a comedian and not check them all out.

I've always run by the hierarchy of "If not funny, interesting. If not interesting, hot. If not hot, bizarre. If not bizarre, break something."

There is a lot of catarsis that passes itself off as art or comedy and I'm kind of critical of that. I think that just because you bare your soul or underwear or private moments it doesn't , or necessarily make for entertainment, or good writing, or funny writing.

My greatest accomplishment is the freedom for doing what I want to do with my music...I love my freedom so I'm happy I am a free artist.