Quotes from 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?

You know, I once read an interesting book which said that, uh, most people lost in the wilds, they, they die of shame. Yeah, see, they die of shame. 'What did I do wrong? How could I have gotten myself into this?' And so they sit there and they... die. Because they didn't do the one thing that would save their lives. Thinking.

Every fear hides a wish.

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

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

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

We all hope. It's what keeps us alive.

It's not a lie. It's a gift for fiction.

We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder 'censorship,' we call it 'concern for commercial viability.

Everybody makes their own fun. If you don't make it yourself, it isn't fun. It's entertainment.

Life in the movie business is like the beginning of a new love affair: it's full of surprises, and you're constantly getting fucked.

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

As you all know first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.

Being a writer in Hollywood is like going to Hitler's Eagle Nest with a great idea for a bar mitzvah.

We all hope. It's what keeps us alive.

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

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.

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

Art is an expression of joy and awe. It is not an attempt to share one's virtues and accomplishments with the audience, but an act of selfless spirit.

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?

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

Anyone can write five people trapped in a snowstorm. The question is how you get them into the snowstorm. 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. To think of a plot that is, as Aristotle says, surprising and yet inevitable, is a lot, lot, lot of work.

Fox: It's lonely at the top. Gould: But it ain't crowded.

Society functions in a way much more interesting than the multiple-choice pattern we have been rewarded for succeeding at in school. Success in life comes not from the ability to choose between the four presented answers, but from the rather more difficult and painfully acquired ability to formulate the questions.