- I want to make beautiful pictures about beautiful people.
- Be smart, but never show it.
- The sign of a clever auteur is to achieve the illusion that there is a sole individual responsible for magnificent creations that require thousands of people to accomplish.
- [in the March 1925 issue of "The Motion Picture Director"] When a picture is screened it is largely a reflection of the mind that directed it. If it is a failure the cause of that failure can often be traced directly to the man with the megaphone. I will also state that many screen successes are almost entirely due to directorial ability.
- [in the March 1925 issue of "The Motion Picture Director"] Of the many artists who help to make up the finished film none is more important than the director. He can always improve a story . . . He is largely responsible for the acting of his cast and there are hundreds of little details of picture making that are entirely within his hands.
- [when told that television would be a serious competitor to the film industry] That's a lot of crap. Our position has never been more secure. Who in hell is going to look at those pigmy screens?
- If a story makes me cry, I know it's good.
- [in October 1937 "Photoplay"] Hollywood brings the world to the United States and the United States to the world. This interchange--of writing brains, talent, music, traditions--is important to world peace. It is equally important to good entertainment which knows no geography and has no international boundary lines.
- If it's an MGM film, it has to LOOK like an MGM film.
- [to Billy Wilder on his production of Sunset Boulevard (1950)] You bastard! You have disgraced the industry that made and fed you. You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood.
- There's only one way to succeed in this business. Step on those guys. Gouge their eyes out. Trample on them. Kick them in the balls. You'll be a smash.
- Wherever I go there are girls who want to become actresses. I have a sixth sense for it. She would follow me into my stateroom if I snapped my fingers, and stay all night. Just for a bit role in any picture. But I am not interested in fast affairs. I am interested in "relationships". I am a human being. I need warmth--like an orchid.
- [to Greta Garbo's agent] Tell her that in America men don't like fat women.
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