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David Mamet

American playwright, filmmaker and author

David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director, director, poet, essayist and novelist.

David Mamet in 2008

Quotes

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  • The art of the theater is action. It is the study of commitment. The word is an act. To SAY the word in such a way as to make it heard and understood by all in the theater is a commitment — it is the highest art to see a human being out on a stage speaking to a thousand of his or her peers saying, 'These words which I am speaking are the TRUTH — they are not an approximation of any kind. They are the God's truth, and I support them with my life,' which is what the actor does on stage.
    • Writing in Restaurants (1987)
  • Before you can steal fire from the Gods you gotta be able to get coffee for the director
    • Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business (2007)
  • We don't have to worry about making it interesting; all we have to worry about is getting rid of the pig.
  • [T]he job of mass entertainment is to cajole, seduce and flatter consumers to let them know that what they thought was right is right, and that their tastes and their immediate gratification are of the utmost concern of the purveyor. The job of the artist, on the other hand, is to say, wait a second, to the contrary, everything that we have thought is wrong. Let's reexamine it.

Glengarry Glen Ross (1993)

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Richard Roma

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  • Cop couldn't find his fucking couch, the living room.
  • Or me lying in the... Let me tell ya... Lying in bed the next day, she brought me cafe au lait, she gives me a cigarette. My balls feel like concrete. Eh?
  • You ever take a dump, made you feel you'd just slept for twelve hours?
  • Then I'm over the fucking top and you owe me a Cadillac. And I don't want any fucking shit and I don't give a shit.
  • Patel?!?! Ravadahm Patel?!?! How am I going to make a living on these deadbeat wogs?! Where'd you get this from, a morgue? Oh come on! What's the fuckin' point?! What's the fuckin' point in any case!? I gotta argue with you? I gotta knock heads with the cops? I'm busting my balls, sell your dirt to two deadbeats; money in a mattress. I come back, you can't even keep the contracts safe. I got to go out and close them again. What the fuck am I wasting my time... Fuck this shit!
  • Patel? Fuck you. Fuckin' Shiva handed him a million dollars, told him sign the deal, he wouldn't sign. And Vishnu, too into the bargain.
  • I find out whose fuckin' cousin you are, I'm gonna go to him and figure out a way to have your ass, FUCK YOU!
  • You cheated on your wife? You did it, live with it. You fuck little girls, so be it. There's an absolute morality? May be. And then what?
  • You stupid fucking cunt. Williamson! I'm talking to you shithead! You just cost me $6,000. $6,000, and one Cadillac. That's right. What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it...asshole? You fucking shit! Where did you learn your trade, you stupid fucking cunt?! You idiot! Whoever told you that you could work with men?! Oh, I'm gonna have your job, shithead. I'm going downtown, I'm going to talk to Mitch and Murray! I'm going to Lemkin! I don't care whose nephew you are...who you know...whose dick you're sucking on, you're going out! I swear to you, you're going out! Anyone in this office lives on his wits. I'm going to be with you in a second. What you are hired for, is to help us. Does that seem clear to you? To HELP us. Not to FUCK US UP! To help men who are going out there to try to earn a living, you fairy. You company man. I'll tell you something else, I hope you ripped the joint off, maybe I can tell our friends here a little something that might help him to catch you. You want to learn the first rule you'd know if you'd ever spent a day in your life? You never open your mouth til you know what the shot is. You fucking child.

Dave Moss

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  • Yes, well that's very cute, but you're running this office like a bunch of bullshit.
  • Anybody that talks to this asshole is a fuckin' asshole.
  • Fuck the machine? FUCK THE MACHINE! What is this, courtesy class? You're fucked, Rick.
  • Cop couldn't find his dick, two hands and a map.
  • Well, to the law, you’re an accessory. Before the fact.

Shelley Levene

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  • That's fucked. That's fucked. You don't look at the fucking percentage. You look at the gross.
  • What the hell are you? You're a fuckin' secretary. Fuck you. That's my message to ya: fuck you and kiss my ass, and if you don't like it baby I'm going across the street to Jerry Graff, period, fuck you. Now, I want you to put me on the cadillac board and I want two promising leads and I don't want any bullshit and I want them close together because I am going to close them all, and that is all I have to say to you! [flips him off]
  • Get the chalk! Get the fucking chalk! Put me on the board! Put me on the Cadillac board! Williamson! Pick up the fucking chalk! Hey, Rick I closed em! I closed the cocksucker!
  • I point back in the living room, back to the sideboard. I didn't fucking know there was a sideboard there!
  • You are a shithead, Williamson. If you can't think on your feet you oughta keep your mouth shut.
  • April to September it's me, it's no fucking Moss! Due respect... he's an order taker. Talks... oh, talks a good game. But look at the board, and it's me John. It's me.
  • A man should BE his job. You are FUCKED at yours.

John Williamson

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  • Where have you been, Shelly? Bruce and Harriet Nyborg. Do you want to see the memos...? They're nuts... they used to call in every week [...] Did you see how they were living? [...] The people are insane. They just like talking to salesmen.

The Secret Knowledge

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  • The goal of the Left is a government-run country and that of the Right the freedom of the individual from government. Page 236.
  • A society can neither advance nor improve without excess of disposable income. This excess can only be amassed through the productions of goods and services necessary or attractive to the mass. A financial system which allows this leads to inequality; one that does not leads to mass starvation. Page 10.
  • The good causes of the Left may generally be compared to NASCAR; they offer the diversion of watching things go excitingly around in a circle, getting nowhere. Page 11.
  • 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. Page 28

See also

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