David Mamet quotes - page 5

The audience perceives only what the actor wants to do to the other actor. (David Mamet)

I love Superman. I'm a big fan of anyone who can make his living in his underwear.

David Mamet

Conservatives believe in smaller government and in the power of the electorate. So I think that we're less likely to try to use a dramatic forum to warp people's political views.

David Mamet

The avant-garde is to the left what jingoism is to the right. Both are a refuge in nonsense.

David Mamet

When we fear things I think that we wish for them ... every fear hides a wish.

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

You can't write about history without writing about politics at some point. History is about movements of people. 'What is criminality and what is government' is a theme that runs through every history.

David Mamet

I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind.

David Mamet

Almost all movie scripts contain material that cannot be filmed.

David Mamet

If you're writing an opinion piece, it's your job to write your opinion. If, on the other hand, you wrote a novel, as Virginia Woolf tells us, it would be inappropriate if you let your novel be influenced by your political opinions.

David Mamet

There's something in me that just wants to create dialogue. (David Mamet)

My tendency as an actor was to correct people, was to say, 'What if we tried it this way, what about if we tried that way?' That's terrible habit for an actor, but that's a good habit for director. So I became a director.

David Mamet

My definition of a 'friend' is, coming from Chicago, someone who says, 'Yeah, sure. You know what? Let's talk about what we can talk about. Let's help each other out. Your politics are none of my business.'

David Mamet

Storytelling is like sex. We all do it naturally. Some of us are better at it than others.

David Mamet

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

David Mamet

The mind is a mill which can incessant turn, 'til its mere operation focus the stress inward and the stones grind themselves to dust.

David Mamet

I like Bach. I like Randy Newman.

David Mamet

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.'

David Mamet

The correct unit of study is not the play; it is the scene.

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

The Israelis would like to live in peace within their borders; the Arabs would like to kill them all. (David Mamet)

Art and mass entertainment and propaganda, they can all be plotted on the same graph, but there is a difference.

David Mamet

I don't have any experience with film schools. I suspect that they're useless, because I've had experience with drama schools, and have found them to be useless.

David Mamet

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.

David Mamet

The Oscars demonstrate the will of the people to control and judge those they have elected to stand above them (much, perhaps, as in bygone days, an election celebrated the same).

David Mamet

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