David Mamet Quotes
A play is basically a long, formalistic polemic. You can write it without the poetry, and if you do, you may have a pretty good play. We know this because we see plays in translation. Not many people speak Norwegian or Danish or whatever guys like Ibsen spoke, or Russian - yet we understand Chekhov and the others.
Quotes to Explore
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I wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember.
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I drove long distances like the 24 hours of Le Mans for years. But even this racing is now over. I retired.
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The Arab world also won the Nobel with me. I believe that international doors have opened, and that from now on, literate people will consider Arab literature also. We deserve that recognition.
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There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.
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The way to lose weight is to eat less, so I ate a lot less for a month and lost a lot of weight pretty quickly.
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People talk about 'getting rid of the old image', and I guess there's some merit in that. But the truth is that people loved 'The Wonder Years' - I can't turn my back on it.
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Cooking for people is an enormously significant expression of generosity and soulfulness, and entertaining is a way to be both generous and creative. You're sharing your life with people. Of course, it's also an expression of your own need for approval and applause. Nothing wrong with that.
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I'm really excited about the prospect of deepening what is already a really strong relationship that I have with the people of Broward.
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The only thing I'd ever wanted in my life was to be a major-league ballplayer, but I had to admit to myself that I wasn't good enough. It broke my heart.
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I was very pleased, obviously, to have outsold great writers. But I'm not insane - I do realise that I am a popular writer who people buy to take on vacation.
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But I honestly don't read critics. My dad reads absolutely everything ever written about me. He calls me up to read ecstatic reviews, but I always insist that I can't hear them. If you give value to the good reviews, you have to give value to the criticism.
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I've been writing for a long time. I sat down to write my first novel in the middle of March of 1982.
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Most people seem unaware that corporate influence and wealth has taken over public policy, such that government policy now favors the wealthy few at the expense of the people.
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The thing about being an artist today is you get to develop right in front of people's eyes before you even put out an album.
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Weight training and working on being explosive helped me gain a few yards of pace. Even when I was small, I was stocky. Even if people pushed me, I managed to stay on my feet.
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I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think something's not good enough, and I won't stop until I feel like I've made it. I'm never satisfied.
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I've had so many hot, cheesy, corny loves of music in my life. I had a very intense Billy Joel period. So once you've really Joeled it up - there's some good periods of Joel; it's not all hot cheese. But I can't judge anyone else for their cheese. I've deep-sea dived in the Gouda.
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I work with CEOs and their executive teams... and very few of these people are really indifferent about their employees or their customers.
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In my business, you should be very strong in mind. You have to be sure about yourself and about your work and your career, and you have to be strong inside because so many people come around and try to say bad things about you.
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As long as artists arbitrarily assume the right to decide what is or is not art, it is logical that the public will just as arbitrarily feel that they have the right to reject it.
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You should learn from your competitor, but never copy. Copy and you die.
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When artists get very big, they kind of forget that that's why they got big.
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I understand the nostalgia of having paper to feel and smell when you read it, but I would rather have fond memories of newspapers that have become obsolete than fond memories of beautiful forests that have become obsolete.
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A play is basically a long, formalistic polemic. You can write it without the poetry, and if you do, you may have a pretty good play. We know this because we see plays in translation. Not many people speak Norwegian or Danish or whatever guys like Ibsen spoke, or Russian - yet we understand Chekhov and the others.
