David Mamet Quotes

Everyone thinks they can write a play; you just write down what happened to you. But the art of it is drawing from all the moments of your life.

I tried writing a novel, but plays were the thing that kept feeding me, asking me to come back, sit down and be with them.

Of course, I'm not allowed to talk about the script, but I can say it is a really good story.

My writing has always been what you call 'narrative fiction' in the sense that it's got very strong plots and twists at the end.

I'm not a theoretician about playwriting, but I have a strong sense that plays have to be pitched - the scene, the line, the word - at the exact point where the audience has just the right amount of information. It's like Occam's razor.

I love a really good storyline.

I've only ever taken a playwriting class, but I like creative writing and writing screenplays.

Plays are the marathon of scriptwriting. You fix on a point somewhere in the middle distance, and you start running, and you don't stop until you get to the end. The theory is that you have something you cannot not say: this is the engine that propels you through to the last page.

I think screenwriting gave me more of an affinity for plot - my first novel, 'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,' doesn't have a very sophisticated roadmap. But screenwriting required me to learn a higher level of plottiness, and I tried to bring that to 'The Haters.'

I love a good cliffhanger. I love when big events happen in shows. I love shows that aren't afraid to take risks and to really do what's best for the story line and realistic for the story line.

Here's what happens in a play. You get involved in a situation where something is unbalanced. If nothing's unbalanced, there's no reason to have a play. If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad's not dead and asks him if he's had a good time, it's boring. But if something's unbalanced, it must be returned to order.

I'm not a good crime writer. I'm not good with plots... so I have to do something else.

Plot is what happens in your story. Every story needs structure, just as every body needs a skeleton. It is how you 'flesh out and clothe' your structure that makes each story unique.

If I ever wrote a script myself, it would be strongly emotional material.

Judgments and secrets are what make a good novel.

I began to be impressed by what made a good book-how you needed to have a sensible story, a plot that developed, with a beginning, a middle, and an end that would tie everything together.

I always think plot is what you fall back on if you can't write, to keep things going.

The suspense of a novel is not only in the reader, but in the novelist, who is intensely curious about what will happen to the hero.

I really believe that studying organization, even in the form of studying detective story organization, is very, very valuable for a playwright, a budding playwright.

I believe that the writer should tell a story. I believe in plot. I believe in creating characters and suspense.

My job as an author is to tell the story in the best way possible, to make it flow seamlessly and get the reader to keep turning the page.

In fiction workshops, we tend to focus on matters of verisimilitude largely because such issues are so much easier to talk about than the failure of imagination.

Writing a great script - not just a good one, but a great one - is almost an impossible task.

To me the most important thing is a good story, though I know how cliche that sounds.

Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.