David Mamet
Dramatist
1947-11-30
Books by David Mamet
-
-
-
Writing in Restaurants
View on Amazon
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Quotes by David Mamet
-
Kraus asks the question of Freudian analysis: What would be enough? At what point would talking about one's problems for x hours a week, be sufficient to bring one to a state of —normalcy—?The genius of Freudianism, Kraus writes, is not the creation of a cure, but of a disease— the universal, if intermittent, human sentiment that —something is not right,— elaborated into a state whose parameters, definitions, and prescriptions are controlled by a self-selecting group of —experts,— who can never be proved wrong.It was said that the genius of the Listerine campaign was attributable to the creation not of mouthwash, but of halitosis. Kraus indicts Freud for the creation of the nondisease of dissatisfaction. (See also the famous —malaise— of Jimmy Carter, which, like Oscar Wilde's Pea Soup Fogs, didn't exist 'til someone began describing it.) To consider a general dissatisfaction with one's life, or with life in general as a political rather than a personal, moral problem, is to exercise or invite manipulation. The fortune teller, the —life coach,— the Spiritual Advisor, these earn their living from applying nonspecific, nonspecifiable —remedies— to nonspecifiable discomforts.The sufferers of such, in medicine, are called —the worried well,— and provide the bulk of income and consume the bulk of time of most physicians. It was the genius of the Obama campaign to exploit them politically. The antecedent of his campaign has been called Roosevelt's New Deal, but it could, more accurately, be identified as The Music Man.
Read quote -
In the meantime: (1) be direct; (2) remember that, being smarter than men, women respond to courtesy and kindness; (3) if you want to know what kind of a wife someone will make, observe her around her father and mother; (4) as to who gets out of the elevator first, I just can't help you.
Read quote -
Society functions in a way much more interesting than the multiple-choice pattern we have been rewarded for succeeding at in school. Success in life comes not from the ability to choose between the four presented answers, but from the rather more difficult and painfully acquired ability to formulate the questions.
Read quote -
Every scene should be able to answer three questions: Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?
Read quote -
It's only words... unless they're true.
Read quote -
We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.
Read quote -
Kraus asks the question of Freudian analysis: What would be enough? At what point would talking about one's problems for x hours a week, be sufficient to bring one to a state of —normalcy—?The genius of Freudianism, Kraus writes, is not the creation of a cure, but of a disease— the universal, if intermittent, human sentiment that —something is not right,— elaborated into a state whose parameters, definitions, and prescriptions are controlled by a self-selecting group of —experts,— who can never be proved wrong.It was said that the genius of the Listerine campaign was attributable to the creation not of mouthwash, but of halitosis. Kraus indicts Freud for the creation of the nondisease of dissatisfaction. (See also the famous —malaise— of Jimmy Carter, which, like Oscar Wilde's Pea Soup Fogs, didn't exist 'til someone began describing it.) To consider a general dissatisfaction with one's life, or with life in general as a political rather than a personal, moral problem, is to exercise or invite manipulation. The fortune teller, the —life coach,— the Spiritual Advisor, these earn their living from applying nonspecific, nonspecifiable —remedies— to nonspecifiable discomforts.The sufferers of such, in medicine, are called —the worried well,— and provide the bulk of income and consume the bulk of time of most physicians. It was the genius of the Obama campaign to exploit them politically. The antecedent of his campaign has been called Roosevelt's New Deal, but it could, more accurately, be identified as The Music Man.
Read quote -
We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.
Read quote -
In the meantime: (1) be direct; (2) remember that, being smarter than men, women respond to courtesy and kindness; (3) if you want to know what kind of a wife someone will make, observe her around her father and mother; (4) as to who gets out of the elevator first, I just can't help you.
Read quote -
It's only words... unless they're true.
Read quote -
Society functions in a way much more interesting than the multiple-choice pattern we have been rewarded for succeeding at in school. Success in life comes not from the ability to choose between the four presented answers, but from the rather more difficult and painfully acquired ability to formulate the questions.
Read quote -
Every scene should be able to answer three questions: Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?
Read quote -
Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.
Read quote -
I don't really have a social life.
Read quote -
A stage play is basically a form of uber-schizophrenia. You split yourself into two minds - one being the protagonist and the other being the antagonist. The playwright also splits himself into two other minds: the mind of the writer and the mind of the audience.
Read quote -
President Obama seems to understand the Constitution as a 'set of suggestions.'
Read quote -
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.
Read quote -
Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama but thrills.
Read quote -
Writing a novel is an incredibly free experience. One puts one's self in a narrative mode. You can go off in any direction - the past, the future, or go laterally, or include one's own beliefs. It's total freedom.
Read quote -
War is tragedy. The great war stories are tragedies. It's the failure of diplomacy. 'War and Peace,' 'A Farewell to Arms,' 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' Those are some of the greatest tragedies.
Read quote