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Always do things the least interesting way, the most blunt way, and you make a better movie. This is my experience.
David Mamet
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The dream and the film are the juxtaposition of images in order to answer a question.
David Mamet
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Marijuana, for example, won't help one determine the correct aspect ratio...
David Mamet
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The audience perceives only what the actor wants to do to the other actor.
David Mamet
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I've always been more comfortable sinking while clutching a good theory than swimming with an ugly fact.
David Mamet
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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.
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Blasphemy and prayer are one. Both assert the existence of a superior power. The first, however, with conviction.
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The avant-garde is to the left what jingoism is to the right. Both are a refuge in nonsense.
David Mamet
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The terror and beauty of the dream come from the connection of previously unrelated mundanities of life.
David Mamet
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One can read all one wants, and spend eternities in front of a blackboard with a tutor, but one is not going to learn to swim until one gets in the water.
David Mamet
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Art is about the spontaneous connection of the artist to his own unconscious - about insight beyond reason. If his insight were reasonable, anyone could do it, but anyone cannot. Only few can, and they are called.
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The purpose of technique is to free the unconscious. If you follow the rules ploddingly, they will allow your unconscious to be free.
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I don't have any experience with film schools. I suspect that they're useless, because I've had experience with drama schools, and have found them to be useless.
David Mamet
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It is the objective of the protagonist that keeps us in our seats.
David Mamet
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The great movie can be as free of being a record of the progress of the protagonist as is a dream.
David Mamet
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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
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It is the writer's job to make the play interesting. It is the actor's job to make the performance truthful.
David Mamet
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The product of the artist has become less important than the fact of the artist. We wish to absorb this person. We wish to devour someone who has experienced the tragic. In our society this person is much more important than anything he might create.
David Mamet
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Who ever told you that you could work with men?
David Mamet
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Being a writer in Hollywood is like going into Hitler's Eagle's Nest with a great idea for a bar-mitzvah.
David Mamet
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The court doesn't exist to give them justice … But to give them a chance for justice.
David Mamet
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When we leave the play saying how spectacular the sets or costumes were, or how interesting the ideas, it means we had a bad time.
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We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.
David Mamet
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Art is an expression of joy and awe. It is not an attempt to share one's virtues and accomplishments with the audience, but an act of selfless spirit.
David Mamet
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Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.
David Mamet
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Quote of the day
Joy is like restless day; but peace divine Like quiet night; Lead me, O Lord, — till perfect Day shall shine Through Peace to Light.
Adelaide Anne Procter
David Mamet
Creative Commons
Born:
November 30, 1947
(age 76)
Bio:
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director. As a playwright, Mamet has won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow.
Known for:
American Buffalo (1977)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1983)
Speed-the-Plow (1988)
Oleanna (1992)
Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1974)
Most used words:
character
audience
prize
human
teach
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