David Mamet quotes - page 3

In Chicago, we love our crooks! (David Mamet)
It's hard to write a good plot, it's very hard. View quote
David Mamet
The essence of jiu-jitsu is philosophy. View quote
David Mamet
Well, to the law, you're an accessory. Before the fact. View quote
David Mamet
A man should BE his job. You are FUCKED at yours. View quote
David Mamet
The goal of the Left is a government-run country and that of the Right the freedom of the individual from government. Page 236. View quote
David Mamet
We're all put to the test... but it never comes in the form or at the point we would prefer, does it? View quote
David Mamet
Yes, well that's very cute, but you're running this office like a bunch of bullshit. View quote
David Mamet
The good causes of the Left may generally be compared to NASCAR; they offer the diversion of watching things go excitingly around in a circle, getting nowhere. Page 11. View quote
David Mamet
I've been alienating my public since I was 20 years old. When 'American Buffalo' came out on Broadway, people would storm out and say, 'How dare he use that kind of language!' Of course I'm alienating the public! That's what they pay me for. View quote
David Mamet
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)
I'm entitled to my political opinions, and I get to vote because I'm an American. View quote
David Mamet
My dad was an immigrant kid and a Democrat and a Jew, and we didn't know any Republicans in our group. So I grew up Democratic. My dad was a labor lawyer - a very hardworking guy, a one-horse labor lawyer - and then I went to hippie college and lived in the bubble. View quote
David Mamet
[T]he job of mass entertainment is to cajole, seduce and flatter consumers to let them know that what they thought was right is right, and that their tastes and their immediate gratification are of the utmost concern of the purveyor. The job of the artist, on the other hand, is to say, wait a second, to the contrary, everything that we have thought is wrong. Let's reexamine it. View quote
David Mamet
You ever take a dump, made you feel you'd just slept for twelve hours? View quote
David Mamet
Get the chalk! Get the fucking chalk! Put me on the board! Put me on the Cadillac board! Williamson! Pick up the fucking chalk! Hey, Rick I closed em! I closed the cocksucker! View quote
David Mamet
Where have you been, Shelly? Bruce and Harriet Nyborg. Do you want to see the memos...? They're nuts... they used to call in every week [...] Did you see how they were living? [...] The people are insane. They just like talking to salesmen. View quote
David Mamet
Forget narrative, backstory, characterisation, exposition, all of that. Just make the audience want to know what happens next. View quote
David Mamet
Worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due. View quote
David Mamet
We all die in the end, but there's no reason to die in the middle. View quote
David Mamet
It is the writer's job to make the play interesting. It is the actor's job to make the performance truthful. (David Mamet)
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.' View quote
David Mamet
The conscious mind is going to suggest the obvious, the cliché, because these things have offered the security of having succeeded in the past. View quote
David Mamet
You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?' View quote
David Mamet
Being a writer in Hollywood is like going to Hitler's Eagle Nest with a great idea for a bar mitzvah. View quote
David Mamet