In that Golden Age of Hollywood that everybody’s always talking about there were only two directors whose names meant anything to the public and critics: Cecil B. DeMille and Ernst Lubitsch.

—claudette colbert

None of us thought we were making anything but entertainment for the moment. Only Ernst Lubitsch knew we were making art.

—john ford

“I’d like to repay you . . .”

“All right, give me a letter of introduction to Lubitsch.”

“I might be able to do that too . . . Who’s Lubitsch?”

—from preston sturges’s sullivan’s travels