Anthony McCarten Quotes

The conventional wisdom with David Mamet is, you do not change a word. And that agrees with me. If you want to change any of David's words, it's like wanting to change the iambic pentameter in Shakespeare - you should do something else.

Even if I don't have a job, I work on plays and scenes.

I really like doing puppetry; I'm not sure if it will find its way into 'Big Bang,' but it always does seem to find its way into a lot of things.

I don't write genre stuff in any form. I'm not interested in it. I always try to do the opposite of that.

It's an odd mix, the life of a playwright.

I wanted each of my books to be very different from the others, each to be special and uncategorizable, and I knew I could only do that a few times before I was in danger of repeating myself.

Although my other ambition was to be a musical theater star (and I would attend college on a voice scholarship), writing was never far from my mind.

I'm trying to focus on original material. That is what I've had my luck with.

I took a writing class in college, liked it, and my first year out of school I couldn't get a job, so I wrote a play.

If I'm serious, yes, I'd like to have done what Shakespeare did... to act and write. You learn so much from acting. One of our great writers, Alan Bennett, does both supremely well. When I write a story, I tend to speak it aloud as I'm writing it.

I learned a long time ago from David Mamet to wipe your feet at the door, get it out on stage and then go about your life.

I had worked in this New York theatre company for my first eight or nine years out of college, acting and directing there, and I'd begun to write a little bit.

I don't think you can write according to a set of rules and laws; every writer is so different.

I have to believe everything I write is brand new and I'm writing in this way about these people in a completely new situation for the very first time.

You can't be a playwright without believing there's an audience for adventurous work.

I did plays in college, and I have half of a play. But I'm kind of stuck. I keep revisiting it so maybe it will move somewhere. There's something about plays where you can feel that sense of artifice at any moment.

I remember thinking during those times that I wanted to write in a way where there are no rules.

I like to originate new roles and characters for musical theater.

My first acting class was taught by a little known playwright, David Mamet, who then cast me in my first play, opposite John Malkovich.

The economics of being a playwright are abysmal. I like to think of the work I do out in Hollywood as a way to actually make a life in the theater easier.

Any time you get to do a David Mamet play, it's a great opportunity. His writing is such that I think it's a big challenge, but when you get it right, it's a great opportunity to play every night, really.

I told my wife once, 'I feel like I'm getting paid to sit at the feet of Aristotle.' Some people are like, 'You're comparing David Milch to Aristotle,' and yeah, I am, but I'm not Plato.

It's a lucky life to be a playwright.

I want to write weirder stuff and convince people that it's Top 40.

I always have something big enough to say as a playwright. It's storytelling.