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Let the cut tell the story. Otherwise you have not got dramatic action, you've got narration.

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
Action
Tell
Stories
Narration
Dramatic
Otherwise
Cutting
Story

More quotes by David Mamet

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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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I'm not the guy to ask about politics. I'm a gag writer.
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I tend to write a lot, which I think is the secret to being prolific.
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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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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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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.
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American football seems to resemble soccer in that one scores by putting the ball through the opponent's goal but football, truly is about land. The Settlers want to move the line of scrimmage Westward, the Native Americans want to move it East.
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All of us. All of us. We're doomed.
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I hate vacations. There's nothing to do.
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The Founders recognized that Government is quite literally a necessary evil, that there must be opposition, between its various branches, and between political parties, for these are the only ways to temper the individual's greed for power and the electorates' desires for peace by submission to coercion or blandishment.
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I love Superman. I'm a big fan of anyone who can make his living in his underwear.
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The individual is not only best qualified to provide his own personal defense, he is the only one qualified to do so: and his right to do so is guaranteed by the Constitution.
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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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The basis of drama is... the struggle of the hero towards a specific goal at the end of which he realises that what kept him from it was, in the lesser drama, civilisation and, in the great drama, the discovery of something that he did not set out to discover but which can be seen retrospectively as inevitable.
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The Israelis would like to live in peace within their borders the Arabs would like to kill them all.
David Mamet
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If, indeed, a firearm were more dangerous to its possessors than to potential aggressors, would it not make sense for the government to arm all criminals, and let them accidentally shoot themselves? Is this absurd? Yes, and yet the government, of course, is arming criminals.
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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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War is tragedy. The great war stories are tragedies. It's the failure of diplomacy. 'War and Peace,' 'A Farewell to Arms,' 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' Those are some of the greatest tragedies.
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When we fear things I think that we wish for them ... every fear hides a wish
David Mamet
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Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only.
David Mamet