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Any time two characters are talking about a third, the scene is a crock of s***.

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
Character
Writing
Crock
Time
Third
Thirds
Characters
Scene
Talking
Two

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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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I didn't knowingly meet a conservative until, to my shame, I was 60 years old and sat down and said, 'Wow, I don't understand what this guy's talking about, but he has a great civility about him. Perhaps I better investigate this thing.'
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IF YOU PRETEND THE CHARACTERS CANT SPEAK, AND WRITE A SILENT MOVIE, YOU WILL BE WRITING GREAT DRAMA.
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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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We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.
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All of us. All of us. We're doomed.
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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.
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A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.
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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.
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In my family, in the days prior to television, we liked to while away the evenings by making ourselves miserable, solely based on our ability to speak the language viciously.
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There is a profound and ineradicable taint of antisemitism in the British.
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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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Life in the movie business is like the beginning of a new love affair: it's full of surprises, and you're constantly getting f***ed.
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My idea of perfect happiness is a healthy family, peace between nations, and all the critics die.
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In a restaurant one is both observed and unobserved. Joy and sorrow can be displayed and observed unwittingly, the writer scowling naively and the diners wondering, What the hell is he doing?
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Being among my people is a delight. We Jews live among ourselves. I love it.
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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.
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The terror and beauty of the dream come from the connection of previously unrelated mundanities of life.
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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.
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Our job, as writers is to do our jobs.
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