360 Quotes by David Mamet

CHARLES: I believe that any professional bears the shame of the questionable worth of his ministrations. I know of my racket what you know of yours: that, for the most part, we are paid for the ability to keep a straight face. While accomplishing little or nothing.

Having spent too many years in show business, the one thing I see that succeeds is persistence. It’s the person who just ain’t gonna go home. I decided early on that I wasn’t going to go home. This is what I’ll be doing until they put me in jail or in a coffin.

Always be closing.

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.

There’s something in me that just wants to create dialogue.

The surprise is half the battle. Many things are half the battle, losing is half the battle. Let’s think about what’s the whole battle.

I don’t really have a social life.

If you’re writing an opinion piece, it’s your job to write your opinion. If, on the other hand, you wrote a novel, as Virginia Woolf tells us, it would be inappropriate if you let your novel be influenced by your political opinions.

The political impulse, similarly, must, however manifested, proceed from a universal urge to order social relations. Emotions.