Quotes by David Mamet

David Mamet

“Based on a true story” is a come-on, the aesthetic equivalent of “no loan request refused.” For, at best, the creator has fashioned a film based on his understanding of, interpretation of, and reduction of the report of an actual occurrence.

Film

Stories

Understanding

A dramatic experience concerned with the mundane may inform but it cannot release; and one concerned essentially with the aesthetic politics of its creators may divert or anger, but it cannot enlighten.

Enlightening

May

Theatre

A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.

Able

Movie

Scripts

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.

Cutting

Get Better

Meaningful

A liberal pretending to be a conservative? That’s like a straight person pretending to be gay to get greater acceptance.

Acceptance

Conservative

Gay

A man stands alone at the plate. This is the time for what? For individual achievement. There he stands alone. But in the field, what? Part of a team.

Fields

Men

Team

A novel it’s different. It’s kind of exhilarating not to have to cut to the bone constantly. Oh, well I can go over here for a moment. I can say what I think the guy was thinking or what the day looked like or what the bird was doing. If you do that as a playwright, you’re dead.

Cutting

Guy

Thinking

A play is basically a long, formalistic polemic. You can write it without the poetry, and if you do, you may have a pretty good play. We know this because we see plays in translation. Not many people speak Norwegian or Danish or whatever guys like Ibsen spoke, or Russian – yet we understand Chekhov and the others.

Long

Play

Writing

A stage play is basically a form of uber-schizophrenia. You split yourself into two minds – one being the protagonist and the other being the antagonist. The playwright also splits himself into two other minds: the mind of the writer and the mind of the audience.

Play

Two

Uber

Acting is not a genteel profession. Actors used to be buried at a crossroads with a stake through the heart. Those people’s performances so troubled the onlookers that they feared their ghosts. An awesome compliment. Those players moved the audience not such that they were admitted to a school, or received a complimentary review, but such that the audience feared for their soul. Now that seems to me something to aim for.

Heart

Player

School

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Able

Abortion

Acceptable

Acceptance

Accepting

Accomplishment

Accusation

Acting

Action

Actors

Admire

Adventure

Affair

Age

Alive

Alma Mater

Ambitious

Amusement

Answers

Arms

Art

Artist

Asks

Assault Weapons

Assessment

Audience

Avant Garde

Battle

Beats

Believe

Bigs

Black And White

Blunt

Book

Borders

Bores You

Branches

British

Cadillacs

Carnivals

Certain

Character

Cheated

Chicago

Choices

Cities

Citizens

Class

Classroom

Clock

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

Tool

The Relationship Therapist

Tool

Quotes by David Mamet

David Mamet

“Based on a true story” is a come-on, the aesthetic equivalent of “no loan request refused.” For, at best, the creator has fashioned a film based on his understanding of, interpretation of, and reduction of the report of an actual occurrence.

A dramatic experience concerned with the mundane may inform but it cannot release; and one concerned essentially with the aesthetic politics of its creators may divert or anger, but it cannot enlighten.

A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.

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.

A liberal pretending to be a conservative? That’s like a straight person pretending to be gay to get greater acceptance.

A man stands alone at the plate. This is the time for what? For individual achievement. There he stands alone. But in the field, what? Part of a team.

A novel it’s different. It’s kind of exhilarating not to have to cut to the bone constantly. Oh, well I can go over here for a moment. I can say what I think the guy was thinking or what the day looked like or what the bird was doing. If you do that as a playwright, you’re dead.

A stage play is basically a form of uber-schizophrenia. You split yourself into two minds – one being the protagonist and the other being the antagonist. The playwright also splits himself into two other minds: the mind of the writer and the mind of the audience.

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The Dating Diary

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