Paddy Chayefsky

You don't send a man to his death because you want a hero.

— Paddy Chayefsky

I'm not a great writer. I'm a great rewriter.

— Paddy Chayefsky

Television is Democracy at it's ugliest.

— Paddy Chayefsky

I'm a human being, god-dammit. My life has value!

— Paddy Chayefsky

You're not such a dog as you think you are.

— Paddy Chayefsky

Don't think of it as art, think of it as work.

— Paddy Chayefsky

Television will do anything for a rating... anything!

— Paddy Chayefsky

Television is democracy at its ugliest.

— Paddy Chayefsky

Howard Beale is processed, instant God, and right now it looks like he might just go over bigger than Mary Tyler Moore.

— Paddy Chayefsky

God save us from people who do the morally right thing. It's always the rest of us who get broken in half.

— Paddy Chayefsky

This was the story of Howard Beale: The first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings

— Paddy Chayefsky

The worst kind of censorship is the kind that takes place in your own mind before you sit down to a typewriter.

— Paddy Chayefsky

The best thing that can happen is for the theme to be nice and clear from the beginning.

— Paddy Chayefsky

We've established the most enormous medical entity ever conceived... and people are sicker than ever. We cure nothing! We heal nothing!

— Paddy Chayefsky

Television is the menace that everyone loves to hate but can't seem to live without.

— Paddy Chayefsky

Americans don’t want drama, especially good drama, they just want their boredom killed.

— Paddy Chayefsky

Television is god-damned amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks,…

— Paddy Chayefsky

I'm afraid to look in the mirror. I'm afraid I'm going to see an old lady with white hair, just like the…

— Paddy Chayefsky

“His vital signs were taken, an electrocardiogram... which revealed occasional ventricular premature contractions. An intern took his history... and then he was…

— Paddy Chayefsky

Ma, sooner or later there comes a point in a man's life when he's gotta face some facts. And one fact I've…

— Paddy Chayefsky

Stop thinking about writing as art. Think of it as work. If you’re an artist, whatever you do is going to be…

— Paddy Chayefsky

I don't know what's good, or bad, or true. I let God worry about truth. I just want to know the momentary…

— Paddy Chayefsky

It's always the generals with the bloodiest records who are the first to shout what a hell it is. And it's always…

— Paddy Chayefsky

All my brothers, my brothers-in-law, they're always telling me what a good-hearted guy I am. You don't get to be good-hearted by…

— Paddy Chayefsky

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the…

— Paddy Chayefsky

“This story is about Howard Beale, who was the news anchorman on UBS TV. In his time, Howard Beale had been a…

— Paddy Chayefsky

It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of…

— Paddy Chayefsky

“I would like at this moment to announce that I will be retiring from this program in two weeks' time because of…

— Paddy Chayefsky

It's not greed and ambition that makes wars--it's goodness. Wars are always fought for the best of reasons, for liberation or manifest…

— Paddy Chayefsky

“I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or…

— Paddy Chayefsky

Television is not the truth. Television is a goddamned amusement park.

— Paddy Chayefsky

The first dead man on Omaha Beach must be a sailor!

— Paddy Chayefsky

I'm not sentimental about war. I see nothing noble in widows.

— Paddy Chayefsky

You British plundered half the world for your own profit. Let's not pass it off as the Age of Enlightenment.

— Paddy Chayefsky

Artists don't talk about art. Artists talk about work. If I have anything to say to young writers, it's stop thinking of…

— Paddy Chayefsky

Television is not the truth! Television is a goddamned amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a travelling troupe of acrobats…

— Paddy Chayefsky