Martin McDonagh Quotes

We've always had the sensibility that you work on the set, and you structure it, much like a play, where once you've got the lines down and blocking right, you freeze it, and then you go out and do what you're doing night after night. You want to structure something that has form and that builds the right dynamic from start to finish.

It's communication - that's what theatre is all about.

I think if you're writing a play, it should be its own end game; you'll never get to do a good one unless you know it's not a blueprint for a film; you're not going to get the action right and the story right.

I think film and television are really a director's medium, whereas theatre is the actor's medium.

There is so much freedom I enjoy in theatre. In films, the roles are limited.

In contrast, the control you have in a theatre is very attractive to me.

Well, in the theater, I think you're actually more responsible for what is going on onstage as a director than you are in film.

I love opening night, and I love doing plays. But one of my favorite parts about doing a play or working on a new play is rehearsal.

If you're a movie actor, you're on your own - you cannot control the stage. The director controls it.

Writing for the stage is different from writing for a book. You want to write in a way that an actor has material to work with, writing in the first person not the third person, and pulling out the dramatic elements in a bigger way for a stage presentation.

Theatre is an actor's medium while a film is the director's.

Theatre is really an actor's playground.

I write my plays to create an excuse for full-tilt acting and performing.

It's hard to find a play that's right for me to do. Rather than waiting around for the right script to come along, I decided to write one myself.

Whether I'm acting or making it, at the end of the day it's telling the story; action, drama. You want the audience to feel it - the story, the action, the scene, or a particular shot. I just keep working on crafting my art, on how to make action movies.

When you have the cast, the sets, the lights, an opera takes on its own life. I'm not one of those directors who marches in with a set of plans.

I love the simple poetry of theater, where you can stand in a spotlight on a stage and wrap a coat around you, and say, 'It was 1860 and it was winter...'

You learn an incredible amount doing theatre, not just about to behave.

With Cold Sassy Tree having its first production, I saw no necessity to do anything other than produce it with the correct setting.

As an actress I find the most enjoyable part of acting is really just to please the director. I just want to please my director.

Theatre is a sacred space for actors. You are responsible; you are in the driving-seat.

I've always known that writing plays is very difficult, because I've written three or four that have never been produced.

Acting is a strange job because your control is very limited.

I always envisioned working in film and in theater. Theater and film are not, they're not in any way substitutable. What I love about theater is so different from what I love about film, and I enjoy the craft of both.

I have directed good actors and have gone through the process which is more detailed in theater in a way. You have to get people to stay for two or three hours in a performance. They need more talk and rehearsal than in films.