Robert McKee Quotes

Quotes about:

• Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.

  Robert McKee

  Leadership, Morning, Powerful

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  71 Copy quote

• Life is chaotic and meaningless, and you have to find your meaning. You must find the answer, you can't just live. That's the point of story: helping you find your meaning in life.

  Robert McKee

  Stories, Answers, Helping

  27 Copy quote

• Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.

  Robert McKee

  Meaningful, Powerful, Creative

  22 Copy quote

• God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.

  Robert McKee

  Writing, Character, Voice

  14 Copy quote

• We often put off doing something for as long as possible, then as we finally make the decision and step into the action, we're surprised by its relative ease. We're left to wonder why we dreaded it until we realize that most of life's actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower.

  Robert McKee

  Long, Decision, Ease

  10 Copy quote

• Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.

  Robert McKee

  Hero, Writing, Skills

  9 Copy quote

• To connect to people at the deepest level, you need stories.

  Robert McKee

  People, Needs, Stories

  8 Copy quote

• When talented people write badly, it's generally for one of two reasons: Either they're blinded by an idea they feel compelled to prove of they're driven by an emotion they must express. When talented people write well, it is generally for this reason: They're moved by a desire to touch the audience.

  Robert McKee

  Writing, Ideas, Two

  Robert McKee (2010). “Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting”, p.7, Harper Collins

  13 Copy quote

• A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.

  Robert McKee

  Art, Silence, Mind

  13 Copy quote

• All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.

  Robert McKee

  Writing, Discipline, Drill Sergeant

  46 Copy quote

• When you do enough research, the story almost writes itself. Lines of development spring loose and you'll have choices galore.

  Robert McKee

  Spring, Writing, Choices

  3 Copy quote

• Writing is a marathon, not a sprint.

  Robert McKee

  Writing, Marathon, Sprint

  19 Copy quote

• In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.

  Robert McKee

  Art, Liars, Lying

  9 Copy quote

• Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cousin, depression.

  Robert McKee

  Cousin, Fear, War

  9 Copy quote

• The Business story is designed to trigger the listener to take an effective action. If it doesn't, the story fails.

  Robert McKee

  Stories, Action, Failing

  3 Copy quote

• Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists and bullet points.

  Robert McKee

  Stories, Bullets, Lists

  "Storytelling That Moves People". Interview with Bronwyn Fryer, hbr.org. June 2003.

  3 Copy quote

• Stories are the currency of human relationships.

  Robert McKee

  Stories, Currency, Humans

  10 Copy quote

• When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the storyteller.

  Robert McKee

  Meaningful, Emotional, Museums

  11 Copy quote

• Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly.

  Robert McKee

  Profound, Choices, Given

  Robert McKee (2010). “Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting”, p.28, Harper Collins

  4 Copy quote

• Stories build cultures by answering the big questions.

  Robert McKee

  Culture, Stories, Bigs

  5 Copy quote

• The mark of a master is to select only a few moments, but give us a lifetime.

  Robert McKee

  Giving, Moments, Lifetime

  Robert McKee (2010). “Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting”, p.31, Harper Collins

  8 Copy quote

• Of the total creative effort represented in a finished work, 75 percent or more of a writer's labor goes into designing the story designing story tests the maturity and insight of the writer, his knowledge of society, nature, and the human heart. Story demands both vivid imagination and powerful analytic thought.

  Robert McKee

  Powerful, Heart, Maturity

  9 Copy quote

• Story isn't a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries us on our search for reality.

  Robert McKee

  Reality, Stories, Flight

  Robert McKee (2010). “Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting”, p.12, Harper Collins

  9 Copy quote

• Of all the reasons for wanting to write, the only one that nurtures us through time is love of the work itself.

  Robert McKee

  Writing, Rough Times, Reason

  6 Copy quote

• If you can't play all the instruments in the orchestra of story, no matter what music may be in your imagination, you're condemned to hum the same old tune.

  Robert McKee

  Writing, Play, Imagination

  Robert McKee (2010). “Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting”, p.10, Harper Collins

  2 Copy quote

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