David Mamet Quotes

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.

David Mamet

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• You do not need to have a 2,400-page bill come out of Washington, D.C.

  

  Carly Fiorina
  • You
  • Need
  • Washington

• All the time I was writing hit songs with my partner David Porter, I always had the yen to perform. Sure did. And when the opportunity came, I took it. The first album, 'Presenting Isaac Hayes,' didn't do so hot, but it was like a prelude for what was to come.

  

  Isaac Hayes
  • Time
  • Writing
  • Opportunity

• As soon as street art got popular, I was just like, 'I'm out of here.'

  

  Barry McGee
  • Art
  • Popular
  • Just

• The one thing that you simply have to remember all the time that you are there, is that Hollywood is an oriental city. As long as you do that you might survive. If you try to equate it with anything else you'll perish.

  

  Olivia De Havilland
  • Time
  • Long
  • Remember

• As an artist, you're always going to be yearning and wanting and never satisfied. I never feel like I've really achieved something.

  

  Parker Posey
  • You
  • Like
  • Artist

• My childhood was great because my family has an amazing sense of humor, and it was just all making videos and jokes and doing skits and things.

  

  Zach Anner
  • Great
  • Family
  • Amazing

• Love is reaching out to try to get to the other person.

  

  Gary Chapman
  • Love
  • Person
  • Reaching

• I grew up in Decatur, Georgia. We had three boys in the household; actually, it felt like four of us. My pops sort of raised my uncle, too. So, it was four boys and, later, a younger sister.

  

  Omari Hardwick
  • Up
  • Sister
  • Three

• I wanted to write a novel that would make others feel the history: the pain and fear that black people have had to live through in order to endure.

  

  Octavia E. Butler
  • People
  • Live
  • History

• Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination.

  

  Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
  • World
  • Reality
  • Imagination

• I just wanna be a good artist.

  

  Kat Graham
  • Good
  • Artist
  • Just

• My family didn't like me going on the stage, and they didn't much like my being a writer, either.

  

  P. L. Travers
  • Family
  • Like
  • Stage

• There is no doubt that the way journalism worked when I was growing up and getting started has changed forever.

  

  Dan Rather
  • Up
  • Growing
  • Forever

• Be bored and see where it takes you, because the imagination's dusty wilderness is worth crossing if you want to sculpt your soul.

  

  Nancy Gibbs
  • Soul
  • Want
  • Imagination

• 'The Ballad of Black Tom' was written, in part, during the latest round of arguments about H. P. Lovecraft's legacy as both a great writer and a prejudiced man. I grew up worshipping the guy, so this issue felt quite personal to me.

  

  Victor LaValle
  • Up
  • Great
  • Guy

• I have so many indie bands on my iPod. What I don't really understand is the attitude that if a band is unknown, they're good, and if they get fans, then you move on to the next band.

  

  Taylor Swift
  • Good
  • Band
  • Attitude

• One does not care for the cage when the bird has flown away from it. and when the bird of life flies away, no one cares for the body left behind.

  

  Ramakrishna
  • Life
  • Bird

• A poem is good if it contains a new analogy and startles the reader out of the habit of treating words as counters.

  

  T. E. Hulme
  • Good
  • Words
  • Habit

• Harry, just go down to the lake tomorrow, right, stick your head in, yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they’ve nicked, and see if they chuck it out. Best you can do, mate.

  

  Joanne Rowling
  • Lake

• The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.

  

  Jimmy Johnson

• People who barely know the two of you assume you are close friends; people who know both of you intimately suspect you profoundly hate each other.

  

  Chuck Klosterman
  • People
  • Friends
  • Hate

• The 2012 London Olympic Games fostered a generation of hope. I witnessed women participating for the very first time, representing every nation.

  

  Jackie Joyner-Kersee
  • Time
  • Women
  • Hope

• I did come up with the term "sack" to describe the devastation I was bringing on the poor, cringing quarterbacks in the NFL. "Sack the quarterback." That was nice. I thought it was lots better than saying, "Jones tackles the QB behind the line for another loss of yardage ..." It had a ring to it, and it caught on with the sports writers. But I tell you, doing it was a lot more fun than talking about it.

  

  Deacon Jones
  • Football
  • Sports
  • Behinds

• 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.

  

  David Mamet