Quote

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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David Mamet
Age: 77
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
Subject
Drama
Subjects
Lying
Disregarded
Ends
Scorned
Truth
Prevails
Done
Overlooked
Writing
Denied

More quotes by David Mamet

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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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People ask me, 'What do you do?' And I tell them I'm a writer, but always with the silent reservation, 'I am, of course, not really a writer. Hemingway was a writer.'
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I tend to write a lot, which I think is the secret to being prolific.
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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.
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Many players will not improve because they cannot bear self-knowledge.
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I don't really have a social life.
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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.
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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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Encounter: Doubt, Shame, Humiliation. It will finally be worth it. Acting is more about courage than anything else.
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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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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.
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The audience requires not information but drama.
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I'm greedy and ambitious like everybody else.
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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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Every fear hides a wish.
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Invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school.
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