David Mamet Quotes

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David Mamet

Profession : Dramatist

Birth : November 30, 1947

My idea of perfect happiness is a healthy family, peace between nations, and all the critics die.

David Mamet

It's only words... unless they're true.

David Mamet

I'm afraid of only two things: being lazy and being cowardly.

David Mamet

I'm entitled to my political opinions, and I get to vote because I'm an American.

David Mamet

The government, for example, has determined that black people (somehow) have fewer abilities than white people, and, so, must be given certain preferences. Anyone acquainted with both black and white people knows this assessment is not only absurd but monstrous. And yet it is the law.

David Mamet

Our job, as writers is to do our jobs.

David Mamet

I look back on my liberal political beliefs with a sort of wonder - as another exercise in self-involvement - rewarding myself for some superiority I could not logically describe.

David Mamet

Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama but thrills.

David Mamet

My greatest fear is that the audience will beat me to the punch line.

David Mamet

A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.

David Mamet

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

Obama is a tyrant the same way FDR was a tyrant. He has a view of presidential power that states: the government is in control of the country, and the president is in charge of the government. He's taken an imperial view of the presidency.

David Mamet

I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind.

David Mamet

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.

David Mamet

Art and mass entertainment and propaganda, they can all be plotted on the same graph, but there is a difference.

David Mamet

There is a profound and ineradicable taint of antisemitism in the British.

David Mamet

In a world we find terrifying, we ratify that which doesn't threaten us.

David Mamet

American football seems to resemble soccer in that one scores by putting the ball through the opponent's goal; but football, truly is about land. The Settlers want to move the line of scrimmage Westward, the Native Americans want to move it East.

David Mamet

I've always been more comfortable sinking while clutching a good theory than swimming with an ugly fact.

David Mamet

War is tragedy. The great war stories are tragedies. It's the failure of diplomacy. 'War and Peace,' 'A Farewell to Arms,' 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' Those are some of the greatest tragedies.

David Mamet