David Mamet Quotes

76 Sourced Quotes

Policemen so cherish their status as keepers of the peace and protectors of the public that they have occasionally been known to beat to death those citizens or groups who question that status.

David Mamet
We respond to a drama to that extent to which it corresponds to our dreamlife.

David Mamet
In a world we find terrifying, we ratify that which doesn't threaten us.

David Mamet
We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder 'censorship,' we call it 'concern for commercial viability.

David Mamet
The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent.

David Mamet
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.

David Mamet
The work of the director is the work of constructing the shot list from the script.

David Mamet
All fears are one fear. Just the fear of death. And we accept it, then we are at peace.

David Mamet
We cannot live in peace without Law. And though law cannot be perfect, it may be just if it is written in ignorance of the identity of the claimants and applied equally to all. Then it is a possession not only of the claimants but of the society, which may now base its actions upon a reasonable assumption of the law?s treatment.

David Mamet
Marijuana, for example, won't help one determine the correct aspect ratio...

David Mamet
Blasphemy and prayer are one. Both assert the existence of a superior power. The first, however, with conviction.

David Mamet
The pain of losing is diverting. So is the thrill of winning. Winning, however, is lonelier, as those you've won money from are not likely to commiserate with you. Winning takes getting used to.

David Mamet
I've always been more comfortable sinking while clutching a good theory than swimming with an ugly fact.

David Mamet
The audience perceives only what the actor wants to do to the other actor.

David Mamet
Always do things the least interesting way, the most blunt way, and you make a better movie. This is my experience.

David Mamet
As long as the protagonist wants something, the audience will want something.

David Mamet
Storytelling is like sex. We all do it naturally. Some of us are better at it than others.

David Mamet
If you find that a point cannot be made without narration, it is virtually certain that the point is unimportant to the story (which is to say, to the audience).

David Mamet
The images in a dream are vastly varied and magnificently interesting.

David Mamet
Almost all movie scripts contain material that cannot be filmed.

David Mamet
Make the audience wonder what's going on by putting them in the same position as the protagonist.

David Mamet
There is no such thing as character other than the habitual action, as Mr. Aristotle told us two thousand years ago.

David Mamet
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
Here is a sovereign talisman against regret: never do that which might engender it.

David Mamet
For it is written that just as it is forbidden to partake of the forbidden, it is forbidden not to partake of the permitted.

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.

David Mamet
The pursuit of Fashion is the attempt of the middle class to co-opt tragedy. In adopting the clothing, speech, and personal habits of those in straitened, dangerous, or pitiful circumstances, the middle class seeks to have what it feels to be the exigent and nonequivocal experiences had by those it emulates.

David Mamet
Hitchcock denigrated American films, saying they were all 'pictures of people talking' - as, indeed, most of them are.

David Mamet
The greater the intellect, the more ease in its misdirection.

David Mamet
The mind is a mill which can incessant turn, 'til its mere operation focus the stress inward and the stones grind themselves to dust.

David Mamet