Top David Mamet Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

David Mamet Biography

David Alan Mamet (/ˈmæmɪt/; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, film director, screenwriter and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). He first gained critical acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway plays in 1976: The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo. His play Race opened on Broadway on December 6, 2009, and his play The Penitent previewed off-Broadway on February 8, 2017.

Read about David Mamet in Wikipedia

Random Authors

David Mamet Quotes

You can't rely on the acting to tell the story.

Acting, Rely, Stories, Story, Tell

The dream and the film are the juxtaposition of images in order to answer a question.

Answers, Dream, Images, Order, Question

In playwriting, you've got to be able to write dialogue. And if you write enough of it and let it flow enough, you'll probably come across something that will give you a key as to structure. I think the process of writing a play is working back and forth between the moment and the whole. The moment and the whole, the fluidity of the dialogue and the necessity of a strict construction. Letting one predominate for a while and coming back and fixing it so that eventually what you do, like a pastry chef, is frost your mistakes, if you can.

Coming, Construction, Mistake, Mistakes, Thinking, Writing

My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign.

Educational, Library, Public, Reading, Tutelage

Encounter: Doubt, Shame, Humiliation. It will finally be worth it. Acting is more about courage than anything else.

Acting, Doubt, Encounters, Humiliation, Shame

Where in the wide history of the world do we find art created by the excessively wealthy, powerful, or educated?

Art, Created, Powerful, World

We all die in the end, but there's no reason to die in the middle.

Die, Ends, Middle, Reason

You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?'

Actors, Choices, Life, Response, Use

All fears are one fear. Just the fear of death. And we accept it, then we are at peace.

Accept, Accepting, Fear, Fear Of Death, Fears, Peace

I won't ever do e-mail.

Mail

They say you can't study Kabbalah until you are at least 40 years old. You know why? You have to have experienced at least one generation making the same mistakes as the previous one.

Generations, Kabbalah, Making, Mistake, Old, Years

Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only.

Closers, Coffee, Down

I used to think I'd like to be a fireman - in fact, I still would - and the only drawback I could see was coming back to the firehouse, after a day of fighting fires, and still having to put in an eight-hour day writing.

Drawback, Fighting, Fireman, Think, Thinking, Writing

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.

Ball, East, Football, Land, Moving, Soccer

My greatest fear is that the audience will beat me to the punch line.

Audience, Beat, Beats, Greatest, Greatest Fear, Lines

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.

Calling, Morning, Mother, Phones, Room, Rung

A play is basically a long, formalistic polemic. You can write it without the poetry, and if you do, you may have a pretty good play. We know this because we see plays in translation. Not many people speak Norwegian or Danish or whatever guys like Ibsen spoke, or Russian - yet we understand Chekhov and the others.

Long, Play, Pretty, Spoke, Write, Writing

I've always been fascinated by the picaresque.

Fascinated, Picaresque

Opportunity may knock, but it seldom nags.

Knock, May, Nags, Opportunity, Seldom

The conscious mind is going to suggest the obvious, the cliché, because these things have offered the security of having succeeded in the past.

Cliche, Conscious, Mind, Past, Security, Things

1