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David Mamet Quotes
David Mamet Quotes
David Mamet
American
Dramatist
Born:
Nov 30
,
1947
Always
Good
Government
People
Think
You
Related authors:
Clare Boothe Luce
George S. Kaufman
Lillian Hellman
Paddy Chayefsky
Tennessee Williams
Wilson Mizner
Zora Neale Hurston
I love the British.
David Mamet
Love
British
I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind.
David Mamet
Mind
Believe
Changed
Liberal
Took
Decades
View
Many
I won't ever do e-mail.
David Mamet
Ever
I don't really have a social life.
David Mamet
Life
Social
Really
Social Life
I've been alienating my public since I was 20 years old.
David Mamet
Old
Since
Been
Years
Public
Liberalism is a religion. Its tenets cannot be proved, its capacity for waste and destruction demonstrated. But it affords a feeling of spiritual rectitude at little or no cost.
David Mamet
Religion
Spiritual
Destruction
Feeling
Liberalism
Cost
Rectitude
Proved
Affords
Cannot
Little
Capacity
Waste
There's something in me that just wants to create dialogue.
David Mamet
Me
Something
Dialogue
Just
Wants
Create
The main question in drama, the way I was taught, is always, 'What does the protagonist want?' That's what drama is. It comes down to that. It's not about theme, it's not about ideas, it's not about setting, but what the protagonist wants.
David Mamet
Down
Setting
Drama
Way
About
Main
Ideas
Protagonist
Does
Always
Question
Taught
Want
Wants
Theme
I've always been fascinated by the picaresque.
David Mamet
Always
Been
Fascinated
Listen, here's the thing about an English degree - if you sat somebody down and asked them to make a list of the writers they admire over the last hundred years, see how many of them got a degree in English.
David Mamet
You
Degree
Somebody
Down
Hundred
Hundred Years
Admire
See
About
Writers
Over
Make
Got
How
Years
List
Listen
Them
Asked
English
Many
Sat
Thing
Here
Last
In Chicago, we love our crooks!
David Mamet
Love
Our
Crooks
Chicago
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
Art
Entertainment
Ways
Evolved
Evolving
Never
Still
Were
Art Form
Just
Different
Form
Movies
Different Ways
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
Life
Time
You
Experience
Own
Young
Say
Response
Life Experience
My Own
Know
Young Actors
Choice
Should
Use
Actor
I don't think there's any information to be gotten from television.
David Mamet
Think
Television
Gotten
Any
Information
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
Family
Speak
Language
Miserable
Our
Solely
Television
Ourselves
Ability
Days
Liked
Prior
Making
While
Evenings
Based
Away
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
Best
Constitution
Own
Defense
Only
Individual
He
Qualified
His
Provide
Personal
Right
Guaranteed
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.
David Mamet
Science
Trust
Sometimes
Fly
Sense
Earth
Bent
Those
Dreamt
More
Both
Never
Wrong
Poker
Academic
Perhaps
Learns
Than
Heaven
Common
Expert
Common Sense
Should
Things
Player
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
Great
Conservative
Better
Old
Down
Meet
Wow
About
Guy
Civility
Shame
Investigate
He
Perhaps
Until
Knowingly
Him
Talking
Understand
Said
Years
Sat
Thing
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
Politics
You
Business
Other
Says
Definition
Out
About
Someone
Know
Talk
Sure
None
Yeah
Coming
Chicago
Friend
Your
Help
Who
Each
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.
David Mamet
Life
Capitalism
Management
Lawyer
Own
Sides
Saw
Bad
My Own
Both
Both Sides
Robber
Ideas
Up
Labour
Grew
Dad
Applied
Coin
The liberals in my neighbourhood wouldn't give away Brentwood to the Palestinians, but they want to give away Tel Aviv.
David Mamet
Liberals
Neighbourhood
Give
Want
Away
Palestinians
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
Politics
Government
History
You
People
Writing
Every
Criminality
Runs
Some
About
Point
Through
Write
Without
Movements
Theme
I've been alienating my public since I was 20 years old. When 'American Buffalo' came out on Broadway, people would storm out and say, 'How dare he use that kind of language!' Of course I'm alienating the public! That's what they pay me for.
David Mamet
Me
People
Old
Language
Pay
Say
Broadway
Dare
Out
Kind
Would
He
Since
Buffalo
Course
How
Came
Been
Years
American
Storm
Public
Use
A play is basically a long, formalistic polemic. You can write it without the poetry, and if you do, you may have a pretty good play. We know this because we see plays in translation. Not many people speak Norwegian or Danish or whatever guys like Ibsen spoke, or Russian - yet we understand Chekhov and the others.
David Mamet
Good
You
People
Speak
Long
Whatever
Translation
Others
Danish
See
Pretty
Pretty Good
Russian
Guys
Poetry
Write
Spoke
Polemic
Like
Know
Because
Without
Chekhov
Understand
May
Norwegian
Many
Play
Basically
Plays
Here's what happens in a play. You get involved in a situation where something is unbalanced. If nothing's unbalanced, there's no reason to have a play. If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad's not dead and asks him if he's had a good time, it's boring. But if something's unbalanced, it must be returned to order.
David Mamet
Time
Good
Home
You
School
Good Time
Situation
Nothing
Must
Boring
Unbalanced
Something
No Reason
Had
He
Involved
Dead
Him
Returned
Hamlet
His
Get
Where
Order
Happens
Ask
Reason
Dad
Play
Here
Roll back the clock, and every possession of every great country started with a crime.
David Mamet
Great
Crime
Country
Every
Back
Great Country
Possession
Clock
Roll
Started
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