Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama but thrills. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
A dramatic experience concerned with the mundane may inform but it cannot release; and one concerned essentially with the aesthetic politics of… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
We respond to a drama to that extent to which it corresponds to our dream life. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
At the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre, Sanford Meisner said, 'When you go into the professional world, at a stock theatre somewhere,… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
The audience perceives only what the actor wants to do to the other actor. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
“The basis of drama is ... is the struggle of the hero towards a specific goal at the end of which he… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
Any claim to actual identification as a drama must rest upon the construction of a plot independent of the assignment of affliction… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
I don't have any experience with film schools. I suspect that they're useless, because I've had experience with drama schools, and have… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
The basis of drama is... the struggle of the hero towards a specific goal at the end of which he realises that… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
The audience will teach you how to act and the audience will teach you how to write and to direct. The classroom… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
Characters on stage, like people in what we refer to as "real life," do not speak to reveal themselves. They do not… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
“All drama is about lies. All drama is about something that’s hidden. A drama starts because a situation becomes imbalanced by a… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
“When you come into the theater, you have to be willing to say, "We're all here to undergo a communion, to find… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
IF YOU PRETEND THE CHARACTERS CANT SPEAK, AND WRITE A SILENT MOVIE, YOU WILL BE WRITING GREAT DRAMA. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
A stage play is basically a form of uber-schizophrenia. You split yourself into two minds - one being the protagonist and the… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
If the scene bores you when you read it, rest assured it WILL bore the actors, and will then bore the audience,… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
Acting is not a genteel profession. Actors used to be buried at a crossroads with a stake through the heart. Those people's… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
We respond to a drama to that extent to which it corresponds to our dreamlife. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
They have a desire to put on plays and to fulfill that traditional role of a theater in a community: to be… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
“For we rationalize, objectify, and personalize the process of the game exactly as we do that of a play, a drama. For,… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
Don't write stage directions. If it is not apparent what the character is trying to accomplish by saying the line, tell us… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
It is the writer’s job to make the play interesting. It is the actor’s job to make the performance truthful. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
The main question in drama, the way I was taught, is always, 'What does the protagonist want?' That's what drama is. It… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
If, indeed, a firearm were more dangerous to its possessors than to potential aggressors, would it not make sense for the government to arm… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
Culture exists and evolves to relegate to habit categories of interactions the constant conscious reference to which would make human interaction impossible. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
“We cannot live in peace without Law. And though law cannot be perfect, it may be just if it is written in ignorance of… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama but thrills. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
The Oscars demonstrate the will of the people to control and judge those they have elected to stand above them (much, perhaps, as in… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
I know very well what it is to be out of work and to be cheated by employers and I know what it is… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
Hitchcock denigrated American films, saying they were all 'pictures of people talking' - as, indeed, most of them are. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
“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.” — David Mamet Copy Share Image
A dramatic experience concerned with the mundane may inform but it cannot release; and one concerned essentially with the aesthetic politics of its creators… — David Mamet Copy Share Image