David Mamet Quotes

Quotes about:

• Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?"

  David Mamet

  Three, Answers, Want

  "Crossings: David Mamet’s Work in Different Genres and Media". Book by Johan Callens, 2009.

  77 Copy quote

• When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.

  David Mamet

  Media, Government, Branches

  "David Mamet's Conservative Conversion". "Hannity" with Sean Hannity, www.foxnews.com. July 8, 2011.

  69 Copy quote

• Forget narrative, backstory, characterisation, exposition, all of that. Just make the audience want to know what happens next.

  David Mamet

  Want, Narrative, Next

  42 Copy quote

• Opportunity may knock, but it seldom nags.

  David Mamet

  Opportunity, May

  David Mamet (1986). “Writing in restaurants”, Viking Adult

  40 Copy quote

• We all die in the end, but there's no reason to die in the middle.

  David Mamet

  Reason, Ends, Middle

  28 Copy quote

• It is the writer’s job to make the play interesting. It is the actor’s job to make the performance truthful.

  David Mamet

  Jobs, Play, Interesting

  David Mamet (2011). “True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor”, p.41, Vintage

  42 Copy quote

• People may or may not say what they mean... but they always say something designed to get what they want.

  David Mamet

  Truth, Honesty, Mean

  35 Copy quote

• Worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due.

  David Mamet

  Worry, Debt, Interest

  5 Copy quote

• One person may need (or want) more leisure, another more work; one more adventure, another more security, and so on. It is this diversity that makes a country, indeed a state, a city, a church, or a family, healthy. 'One-size-fits-all,' and that size determined by the State has a name, and that name is 'slavery.'

  David Mamet

  Country, Adventure, Cities

  "Hands Off Our Guns" by David Mamet, www.realclearpolitics.com. January 26, 2013.

  58 Copy quote

• Liberalism is a religion. Its tenets cannot be proved, its capacity for waste and destruction demonstrated. But it affords a feeling of spiritual rectitude at little or no cost.

  David Mamet

  Spiritual, Feelings, Cost

  David Mamet (2011). “The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture”, p.53, Penguin

  15 Copy quote

• A good writer gets better only by learning to cut, to remove the ornamental, the descriptive, the narrative, and especially the deeply felt and meaningful. What remains? The story remains.

  David Mamet

  Meaningful, Cutting, Get Better

  David Mamet (1991). “On Directing Film”, Penguin Group USA

  18 Copy quote

• When you come into the theatre, you have to be willing to say, 'We're all here to undergo a communion, to find out what the hell is going on in this world.' If you're not willing to say that, what you get is entertainment instead of art, and poor entertainment at that.

  David Mamet

  Art, Theatre, World

  David Mamet (2013). “Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama”, p.27, Vintage

  47 Copy quote

• To find beauty in the sad, hope in the midst of loss, and dignity in failure is great poetic art.

  David Mamet

  Art, Loss, Dignity

  9 Copy quote

• Welcome to Chicago. This town stinks like a whorehouse at low tide.

  David Mamet

  Law, Chicago, Tides

  "Fictional character: Jim Malone". "The Untouchables", www.imdb.com. June 2, 1987.

  7 Copy quote

• Having spent too many years in show business, the one thing I see that succeeds is persistence. It's the person who just ain't gonna go home. I decided early on that I wasn't going to go home. This is what I'll be doing until they put me in jail or in a coffin.

  David Mamet

  Home, Persistence, Years

  43 Copy quote

• Every fear hides a wish.

  David Mamet

  Fear, Wish

  David Mamet (2015). “Mamet Plays: 2: Reunion; Dark Pony; A Life in the Theatre; The Woods; Lakeboat; Edmond”, p.286, Bloomsbury Publishing

  27 Copy quote

• The main question in drama, the way I was taught, is always, 'What does the protagonist want?' That's what drama is. It comes down to that. It's not about theme, it's not about ideas, it's not about setting, but what the protagonist wants.

  David Mamet

  Drama, Ideas, Doe

  31 Copy quote

• The study of acting consists in the main of getting out of one’s own way, and in learning to deal with uncertainty and being comfortable being uncomfortable.

  David Mamet

  Acting, Way, Study

  8 Copy quote

• The subject of drama is The Lie. At the end of the drama THE TRUTH -- which has been overlooked, disregarded, scorned, and denied -- prevails. And that is how we know the Drama is done.

  David Mamet

  Drama, Lying, Writing

  David Mamet (2013). “Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama”, p.87, Vintage

  27 Copy quote

• The audience requires not information but drama.

  David Mamet

  Drama, Information, Audience

  David Mamet (1991). “On Directing Film”, Penguin Group USA

  8 Copy quote

• Don't write stage directions. If it is not apparent what the character is trying to accomplish by saying the line, tell us how the character said it or whether or not she moved to the couch isn't going to aid the case.

  David Mamet

  Writing, Character, Theatre

  David Mamet (1986). “Writing in restaurants”, Viking Adult

  13 Copy quote

• Being a writer in Hollywood is like going to Hitler's Eagle Nest with a great idea for a bar mitzvah.

  David Mamet

  Eagles, Ideas, Hollywood

  32 Copy quote

• The first amendment ensures not that speech will be fair, but that it will be free. It cannot be both.

  David Mamet

  Speech, Firsts, First Amendment

  17 Copy quote

• You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?'

  David Mamet

  Choices, Use, Actors

  18 Copy quote

• Encounter: Doubt, Shame, Humiliation. It will finally be worth it. Acting is more about courage than anything else.

  David Mamet

  Doubt, Acting, Encounters

  26 Copy quote

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