The only pictures worth making are the ones that are playing with fire.
Interpretation
Creative endeavors that challenge norms are the most valuable.
Billy Wilder's quote emphasizes the importance of pushing boundaries and taking risks in the creative process. By 'playing with fire,' he suggests that true artistry involves experimenting with bold ideas and concepts, even if they may lead to failure or controversy, as these are often the works that leave a lasting impact.
In practice
An artist could use this quote when discussing their approach to new projects in an interview.
Film’s thought of as a director’s medium because the director creates the end product that appears on the screen. It’s that stupid auteur theory again, that the director is the author of the film. But what does the director shoot-the telephone book? Writers became much more important when sound came in, but they’ve had to put up a valiant fight to get the credit they deserve.
What critics call dirty in our pictures, they call lusty in foreign films.
I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut.
Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon.
Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.
I'd worship the ground you walked on if only you walked in a better neighborhood.
I never, ever want to apologize for a film. If it's bad I'll say it's my fault. And that's what I can say so far in all the films that I've done, that if you don't like it, it's entirely my fault.
I am madness maddened when it comes to books, writers, and the great granary silos where their wits are stored.
I have always been resistant to doctrine, and any spirituality I had experienced thus far in my life had been much more abstract and not aligned with any recognized religion. For me, the most trustworthy vehicle for spirituality had always proven to be music. It cannot be manipulated, or politicized, and when it is, that becomes immediately obvious.
I don't like to read contemporary fiction while writing - I need a sense of isolation, a kind of silence, and I don't want a jumble of other people's voices or visions getting in my way. Nineteenth-century voices don't create static in that silence.
I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music.
I gave my hero a talent I'd love to have. Who wouldn't want to fly?
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