David Mamet Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about David Mamet

David Mamet Quotes & Sayings

Happy to read and share the best inspirational David Mamet quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes.

We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie. — David Mamet

What I value most in my friends is loyalty. — David Mamet

It's not a lie. It's a gift for fiction. — David Mamet

Fun is what you do for yourself. If somebody else does it, it's entertainment. — David Mamet

Movies were never an art form, they were entertainment. It just evolved into an art form from there, and it's still evolving in different ways. — David Mamet

Welcome to Chicago. This town stinks like a whorehouse at low tide. — David Mamet

Blasphemy and prayer are one. Both assert the existence of a superior power. The first, however, with conviction. — David Mamet

I grew up in a tough neighborhood and we used to say you can get further with a kind word and a gun than just a kind word. — David Mamet

It's hard to write a good play because it's hard to structure a plot. If you can think of it off the top of your head, so can the audience. — David Mamet

I've always been more comfortable sinking while clutching a good theory than swimming with an ugly fact. — David Mamet

We're all put to the test ... but it never comes in the form or at the point we would prefer, does it? — David Mamet

I hate vacations. There's nothing to do. — David Mamet

Val Kilmer gave my husband, David Mamet, a Randall knife as a gift when the two of them were making the film 'Spartan.' — Rebecca Pidgeon

Any time two characters are talking about a third, the scene is a crock of s***. — David Mamet

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. — David Mamet

Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only. — David Mamet

Accepted nowhere, belonging nowhere, The Human Ant is forced to roam the world, half-ant, half-cow. — David Mamet

Show business is and has always been a depraved carnival. — David Mamet

The images in a dream are vastly varied and magnificently interesting. — David Mamet

The quality I most admire in a man is steadfastness. — David Mamet

In practice we, in the world, must do business with each other. — David Mamet

The first amendment ensures not that speech will be fair, but that it will be free. It cannot be both. — David Mamet

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

Roll back the clock, and every possession of every great country started with a crime. — David Mamet

Luck, if there is such a thing, is either going to favor everyone equally or going to exhibit a preference for the prepared. — David Mamet

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

I know very well what it is to be out of work and to be cheated by employers and I know what it is to be an employer. — David Mamet

The great movie can be as free of being a record of the progress of the protagonist as is a dream. — David Mamet

Train yourself for a profession that does not exist. — David Mamet

A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue. — David Mamet

Well, there are those who would say it's a form of aggression."
"What is?"
"A surprise. — David Mamet

Many players will not improve because they cannot bear self-knowledge. — David Mamet

My Alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. — David Mamet

However much our quotidian cares consume us, our dreamtime is too valuable, and will be devoted to problems not susceptible to rational consideration. — David Mamet

We can only interpret the behavior of others through the screen we create. — David Mamet

For it is written that just as it is forbidden to partake of the forbidden, it is forbidden not to partake of the permitted. — David Mamet

My first acting class was taught by a little known playwright, David Mamet, who then cast me in my first play, opposite John Malkovich. — John Mahoney

We respond to a drama to that extent to which it corresponds to our dreamlife. — David Mamet

I learned a long time ago from David Mamet to wipe your feet at the door, get it out on stage and then go about your life. — Patti LuPone

How was her crumbcake?
oh.. from the store ...
... — David Mamet

I don't think there's any information to be gotten from television. — David Mamet

I'm entitled to my political opinions, and I get to vote because I'm an American. — David Mamet

I love working on a typewriter - the rhythm, the sound; it's like playing the piano, which I do, too. — David Mamet

They say the definition of ambivalence is watching your mother-in-law drive over a cliff in your new Cadillac. — David Mamet

People may or may not say what they mean ... but they always say something designed to get what they want. — David Mamet

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

It's upsetting to be a man in our society. — 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

All rhetorical questions are accusations. — David Mamet

I don't really have a social life. — David Mamet

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

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

IF YOU PRETEND THE CHARACTERS CANT SPEAK, AND WRITE A SILENT MOVIE, YOU WILL BE WRITING GREAT DRAMA. — David Mamet

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

Invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school. — David Mamet

The purpose of technique is to free the unconscious. If you follow the rules ploddingly, they will allow your unconscious to be free. — David Mamet

The problem play is a melodrama cleansed of invention. — David Mamet

It's only words... unless they're true. — David Mamet

Marijuana, for example, won't help one determine the correct aspect ratio ... — David Mamet

The work of the director is the work of constructing the shot list from the script. — David Mamet

There's no such thing as talent; you just have to work hard enough. — David Mamet

We all hope. It's what keeps us alive. — David Mamet

The leaf of the camomile, parboiled in water, conduces to calm. And yet I do not worship it. — David Mamet

Make the audience wonder what's going on by putting them in the same position as the protagonist. — David Mamet

Get into the scene late; get out of the scene early. — David Mamet

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

This is what happens when your life is authored not by God, but by David Mamet. — Jess Walter

I would probably do anything with David Mamet. He's so great. I just love his writing. — Val Kilmer

You don't know what life is. You know nothing. — David Mamet

Always tell the truth - it's the easiest thing to remember. — David Mamet

President Obama seems to understand the Constitution as a 'set of suggestions.' — David Mamet

For the record, if you're not a stage actor, climbing onto Broadway and tackling something like David Mamet is not an easy thing to do. — Jeremy Piven

I love the British. — David Mamet

Every scene should be able to answer three questions: Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now? — David Mamet

Our job, as writers is to do our jobs. — David Mamet

Opportunity may knock, but it seldom nags. — David Mamet

I'm greedy and ambitious like everybody else. — David Mamet

Anyone ever lost in the wild knows that nature wants you dead. — David Mamet

There is no such thing as character other than the habitual action, as Mr. Aristotle told us two thousand years ago. — David Mamet

Every fear hides a wish. — David Mamet

What we're trying to do is find two or more shots the juxtaposition of which will give us the idea. — David Mamet

I was fortunate enough to have a rambling youth. — David Mamet

To find beauty in the sad, hope in the midst of loss, and dignity in failure is great poetic art. — David Mamet

What is our life: (Pause.) it's looking forward or it's looking back. And that's our life. That's it. Where is the moment? — David Mamet

My idea of perfect happiness is a healthy family, peace between nations, and all the critics die. — David Mamet

I'm afraid of only two things: being lazy and being cowardly. I get up early in the morning and go to work. I love to write. — David Mamet

When I started out I was a failed actor. — David Mamet

You got an all-out prize fight, you wait 'til the fight's over, one guy's left standing and that's how you know who's won. — David Mamet

I won't ever do e-mail. — David Mamet

Here is a sovereign talisman against regret: never do that which might engender it. — David Mamet

I go out there. I'm out there every day. [Pause] There is nothing out there. — David Mamet

I tend to write a lot, which I think is the secret to being prolific. — David Mamet

People only speak to get something. — David Mamet

It's hard to write a good plot, it's very hard. — David Mamet

I'm not the guy to ask about politics. I'm a gag writer. — David Mamet

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

The theatre is traditionally where people go to hear the truth. — David Mamet

I've always been fascinated by the picaresque. — David Mamet

I'm not an ascetic. — David Mamet

Always do things the least interesting way, the most blunt way, and you make a better movie. This is my experience. — David Mamet