Make the audience wonder what's going on by putting them in the same position as the protagonist. David Mamet More Quotes by David Mamet More Quotes From 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 religious men believe My idea of perfect happiness is a healthy family, peace between nations, and all the critics die. David Mamet healthy perfect ideas 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 evening language television 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. David Mamet mistake writing thinking I hate the computer. I hate their spell-check. I won't ever do e-mail. David Mamet computer mail hate I was fortunate enough to have a rambling youth. David Mamet rambling youth enough A man stands alone at the plate. This is the time for what? For individual achievement. There he stands alone. But in the field, what? Part of a team. David Mamet team fields men Writing a novel is an incredibly free experience. One puts one's self in a narrative mode. You can go off in any direction - the past, the future, or go laterally, or include one's own beliefs. It's total freedom. David Mamet self writing past The true writer must write not the acceptable but the true. David Mamet acceptable writing I've always been more comfortable sinking while clutching a good theory than swimming with an ugly fact. David Mamet ugly swimming facts I love working on a typewriter - the rhythm, the sound; it's like playing the piano, which I do, too. David Mamet piano typewriters sound If You can't tell it to me in one sentence, they can't put it in TV Guide. David Mamet one-sentence guides tvs Before you can steal fire from the Gods you gotta be able to get coffee for the director. David Mamet coffee fire directors The realization that I came to is that each citizen for himself or herself understands the economics, which is, "I better make more than I spend and I better put something aside for a rainy day, and I want to get a good idea about what to do with the surplus so that perhaps it can grow while I'm sleeping." And that that's capitalism. Everybody practices it, but half of the country - those on the left - deny that it's true. David Mamet rainy-day sleep country All rhetorical questions are accusations. David Mamet rhetorical-question rhetorical accusation Everybody makes their own fun. If you don't make it yourself, it isn't fun. It's entertainment. David Mamet entertainment ifs fun The audience requires not information but drama. David Mamet audience information drama I tend to write a lot, which I think is the secret to being prolific. David Mamet secret writing thinking My dad was an immigrant kid and a Democrat and a Jew, and we didn't know any Republicans in our group. So I grew up Democratic. My dad was a labor lawyer - a very hardworking guy, a one-horse labor lawyer - and then I went to hippie college and lived in the bubble. David Mamet horse dad hippie 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. David Mamet constitution individual defense
