Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
Every scene should be able to answer three questions: Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?
David Mamet
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
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
Happens
Screenplays
Film
Questioning
Able
Questions
Every
Answer
Scene
Wants
Answers
Three
More quotes by David Mamet
Storytelling is like sex. We all do it naturally. Some of us are better at it than others.
David Mamet
The surprise is half the battle. Many things are half the battle, losing is half the battle. Let's think about what's the whole battle.
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
I understand that computers, which I once believed to be but a hermaphrodite typewriter-cum-filing cabinet, offer the cyber literate increased ability to communicate. I do not think this is altogether a bad thing, however it may appear on the surface.
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
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
You know, I once read an interesting book which said that, uh, most people lost in the wilds, they, they die of shame. Yeah, see, they die of shame. 'What did I do wrong? How could I have gotten myself into this?' And so they sit there and they... die. Because they didn't do the one thing that would save their lives. Thinking.
David Mamet
The honest man might observe... that no one gets something for nothing that politicians go in poor and go out rich that the Government screws up everything it touches and that the Will to Believe is best confined to the Religious Venue, as to practice it elsewhere is just too damned expensive.
David Mamet
Being among my people is a delight. We Jews live among ourselves. I love it.
David Mamet
It is not the constitutional prerogative of the Government to determine needs.
David Mamet
When we fear things I think that we wish for them ... every fear hides a wish
David Mamet
Fun is what you do for yourself. If somebody else does it, it's entertainment.
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
I love Superman. I'm a big fan of anyone who can make his living in his underwear.
David Mamet
Writing a novel is an incredibly free experience. One puts one's self in a narrative mode. You can go off in any direction - the past, the future, or go laterally, or include one's own beliefs. It's total freedom.
David Mamet
There's nothing in the world more silent than the telephone the morning after everybody pans your play. It won't ring from room service your mother won't be calling you. If the phone has not rung by 8 in the morning, you're dead.
David Mamet
Invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school.
David Mamet
It's upsetting to be a man in our society.
David Mamet
Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only.
David Mamet
I'm greedy and ambitious like everybody else.
David Mamet
