360 Quotes by David Mamet

If the scene bores you when you read it, rest assured it WILL bore the actors, and will then bore the audience, and we’re all going to be back in the breadline.

You know, young actors say all the time, ‘Should I use my own life experience?’ And my response is, ‘What choice do you have?’

They say you can’t study Kabbalah until you are at least 40 years old. You know why? You have to have experienced at least one generation making the same mistakes as the previous one.

Every scene should be able to answer three questions: “Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don’t get it? Why now?

Let the cut tell the story. Otherwise you have not got dramatic action, you’ve got narration.

Don’t write stage directions. If it is not apparent what the character is trying to accomplish by saying the line, tell us how the character said it or whether or not she moved to the couch isn’t going to aid the case.

You don’t know what life is. You know nothing.

Writing a novel is an incredibly free experience. One puts one’s self in a narrative mode. You can go off in any direction – the past, the future, or go laterally, or include one’s own beliefs. It’s total freedom.

As you all know first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired.