David Mamet quotes - page 6

A stage play is basically a form of uber-schizophrenia. You split yourself into two minds - one being the protagonist and the other being the antagonist. The playwright also splits himself into two other minds: the mind of the writer and the mind of the audience. (David Mamet)
I've been alienating my public since I was 20 years old. View quote
David Mamet
My dad was a labour lawyer, and the ideas that I grew up with - bad management, bad capitalism, robber barons - when I applied this to my own life, I saw that we are all on both sides of the coin. View quote
David Mamet
When I started out I was a failed actor. View quote
David Mamet
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.' View quote
David Mamet
There is a profound and ineradicable taint of antisemitism in the British. View quote
David Mamet
What we're trying to do is find two or more shots the juxtaposition of which will give us the idea. View quote
David Mamet
You can't rely on the acting to tell the story. View quote
David Mamet
Make the audience wonder what's going on by putting them in the same position as the protagonist. View quote
David Mamet
Many players will not improve because they cannot bear self-knowledge. View quote
David Mamet
Being among my people is a delight. We Jews live among ourselves. I love it. (David Mamet)
In practice we, in the world, must do business with each other. View quote
David Mamet
Mixed martial arts was invented by Brazilians, whose families had been trained by the Japanese. Those Brazilians came to the U.S., where their invention was bought out, gussied up and presented to the world, which found it good. View quote
David Mamet
Each culture has its own form of staged combat, evolved from its particular method of street fighting and cleaned up for presentation as a spectacle, e.g. savate, Cornish wrestling, karate, kung-fu. View quote
David Mamet
Always do things the least interesting way, the most blunt way, and you make a better movie. This is my experience. View quote
David Mamet
The product of the artist has become less important than the fact of the artist. We wish to absorb this person. We wish to devour someone who has experienced the tragic. In our society this person is much more important than anything he might create. View quote
David Mamet
I'm responding to the will of the people. View quote
David Mamet
Blasphemy and prayer are one. Both assert the existence of a superior power. The first, however, with conviction. View quote
David Mamet
You don't know what life is. You know nothing. View quote
David Mamet
The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent. View quote
David Mamet
President Obama seems to understand the Constitution as a 'set of suggestions.' (David Mamet)
I've always been more comfortable sinking while clutching a good theory than swimming with an ugly fact. View quote
David Mamet
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. View quote
David Mamet
The liberals in my neighbourhood wouldn't give away Brentwood to the Palestinians, but they want to give away Tel Aviv. View quote
David Mamet
I'm not the guy to ask about politics. I'm a gag writer. View quote
David Mamet