David Mamet Quotes

There is commerciality in storytelling, even in a film or a piece of literature. These things exist. That's why stories came to be: to hold attention and, while you're not looking, you'll get hopefully some nutritional value that the author has been working up. That's narrative; that's passing stuff down.

Sometimes stories are inherently important whether or not they have a direct relation to your life.

90%, 100% are going there to hear the singing. The story is another thing. Nobody's interested in the story. Happiness is happiness.

I give importance only to the story of a movie.

In movies, you can basically buy the audience into the theater. If you spend enough money on visual effects, even if you are lacking in story and character, you might still pull it off.

Humans like stories. Humans need stories. Stories are good. Stories work. Story clarifies and captures the essence of the human spirit. Story, in all its forms—of life, of love, of knowledge—has traced the upward surge of mankind. And story, you mark my words, will be with the last human to draw breath.

You ought to be able to discover something from your stories. If you don't, probably nobody else will.

If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen. And here I make a rule—a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last.

All stories teach us something, and promise us something, whether they're true or invented, legend or fact.

Whatever kind of story you're telling, whether it's a genre piece for a comic book or whatever it is, it has importance because it's all a metaphor for the existence of our being.

Why does anybody tell a story? It does indeed have something to do with faith. Faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.

I am a story teller. If I wanted to send a message I would have written a sermon.

There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler's mind.

News media stimulate bubbles, since stories about them boost their audience.

I'm not trying to convey a message, I'm just trying to tell a story.

The Business story is designed to trigger the listener to take an effective action. If it doesn't, the story fails.

I think a story is an attention grabber. I think it's a truth conveyor. Those are two great features of a good story.

I'd like to think that if you find your audience there are still opportunities there to go and tell an original story.

The philosophy I always have is what's the sentence that would tell me about each shot. If I can't read why the shot's there, what is the story trying to say?

Probably a good idea, let me know how it ends" "I already know how it ends" "You read the ending first?" "I always read the ending before I commit to the whole book." "If you know how it ends, why read the book?" "I don't read for the ending. I read for the story".

Get into "the state:" Conquer fear by stopping thinking about yourself and instead, focusing 100 percent on how you can best serve your audience.

You have to find your tone and work within that to make it as real so the audience can really engage in the story you're telling.

As a reader, I don't feel a story has an obligation to make me happy. I want stories to show me a bigger world than the one I know.

Humans know when it's not a good story. Unless you do this for a living, you may not know exactly why you don't like a story, but you can't fool an audience ever. They know when you have it and they know when you don't.

You can't feel sorry for a scene. If the movie works without the scene, then you don't need the scene.