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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

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David Mamet
Age: 76
Born: 1947
Born: November 30
Actor
Author
Film Director
Film Producer
Novelist
Playwright
Poet
Screenwriter
Television Producer
Theatrical Director
Writer
Chicago
Illinois
David Alen Mamet
David Alan Mamet
Question
Wants
Protagonist
Taught
Protagonists
Comes
Settings
Doe
Theme
Main
Ideas
Setting
Way
Drama
Always

More quotes by David Mamet

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We all hope. It's what keeps us alive.
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As you all know first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.
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Everybody makes their own fun. If you don't make it yourself, it isn't fun. It's entertainment.
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The secret knowledge is there's nobody home but us chickens. The Constitution was written by a bunch of regular guys who tried to get together and thrash out a contract under which they could get together that would keep people together.
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You get rich through luck. You get rich through crime. You get rich through fulfilling the needs of another. You can be as greedy as you like. If you can’t do one of those three things, you ain’t going to get any money.
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We're all put to the test... but it never comes in the form or at the point we would prefer, does it?
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They say the definition of ambivalence is watching your mother-in-law drive over a cliff in your new Cadillac.
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Every scene should be able to answer three questions: Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?
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Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only.
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I go out there. I'm out there every day. [Pause] There is nothing out there.
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We respond to a drama to that extent to which it corresponds to our dream life.
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You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?'
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Luck, if there is such a thing, is either going to favor everyone equally or going to exhibit a preference for the prepared.
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Being a writer in Hollywood is like going to Hitler's Eagle Nest with a great idea for a bar mitzvah.
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What we're trying to do is find two or more shots the juxtaposition of which will give us the idea.
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I'm entitled to my political opinions, and I get to vote because I'm an American.
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I always thought the real violence in Hollywood isn't what's on the screen. It's what you have to do to raise the money.
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My dad was a labour lawyer, and the ideas that I grew up with - bad management, bad capitalism, robber barons - when I applied this to my own life, I saw that we are all on both sides of the coin.
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