As long as the protagonist wants something, the audience will want something. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
The audience perceives only what the actor wants to do to the other actor. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
People may or may not say what they mean... but they always say something designed to get what they want. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
Forget narrative, backstory, characterisation, exposition, all of that. Just make the audience want to know what happens next. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
One can read all one wants, and spend eternities in front of a blackboard with a tutor, but one is not going… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
The liberals in my neighbourhood wouldn't give away Brentwood to the Palestinians, but they want to give away Tel Aviv. — David Mamet Copy Share Image
You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the… — 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
Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
The realization that I came to is that each citizen for himself or herself understands the economics, which is, "I better make… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
One person may need (or want) more leisure, another more work; one more adventure, another more security, and so on. It is… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
People only speak to get something. If I say, Let me tell you a few things about myself, already your defenses go… — 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
American football seems to resemble soccer in that one scores by putting the ball through the opponent's goal; but football, truly is… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
Freud believed that our dreams sometimes recapitulate a speech, a comment we've heard or something that we've read. I always had compositions… — David Mamet Copy Share Image
Consider: for all the gobbledegook [film studio] executives spout about backstory, all that we, the audience, want to know is what happens… — 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
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
“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
Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama but thrills. — David Mamet Copy Share
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
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
Hitchcock denigrated American films, saying they were all 'pictures of people talking' - as, indeed, most of them are. — David Mamet Copy Share
“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
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
The product of the artist has become less important than the fact of the artist. We wish to absorb this person. We wish to… — David Mamet Copy Share
“As a youth I enjoyed — indeed, like most of my contemporaries, revered — the agitprop plays of Brecht, and his indictments of Capitalism.… — David Mamet Copy Share
![“Consider: for all the gobbledegook [film studio] executives spout about backstory, all that we, the audience, want to know is what happens next. That's the only thing that's going on. . . . Character is nothing other than action, and character-driven means The plot stinks, and you'd better hope…” quote by David Mamet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7fb/david-mamet-1178_action_consider-for-all-the-gobbledegook-film-s_1913442.jpg)