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" My greatest fear is that the audience will beat me to the punch line. "
David Mamet
Punch
Line
Fear
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" Movies were never an art form, they were entertainment. It just evolved into an art form from there, and it's still evolving in different ways. "
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" When I started out I was a failed actor. "
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" I was fortunate enough to have a rambling youth. "
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" I won't ever do e-mail. "
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" Conservatives believe in smaller government and in the power of the electorate. So I think that we're less likely to try to use a dramatic forum to warp people's political views. "
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" Policemen so cherish their status as keepers of the peace and protectors of the public that they have occasionally been known to beat to death those citizens or groups who question that status. "
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" I hate vacations. There's nothing to do. "
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" You can't write about history without writing about politics at some point. History is about movements of people. 'What is criminality and what is government' is a theme that runs through every history. "
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" There's no such thing as talent; you just have to work hard enough. "
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" Our job, as writers is to do our jobs. "
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" You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?' "
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" People ask me, 'What do you do?' And I tell them I'm a writer, but always with the silent reservation, 'I am, of course, not really a writer. Hemingway was a writer.' "
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" My tendency as an actor was to correct people, was to say, 'What if we tried it this way, what about if we tried that way?' That's terrible habit for an actor, but that's a good habit for director. So I became a director. "
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" I always thought the real violence in Hollywood isn't what's on the screen. It's what you have to do to raise the money. "
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" What I value most in my friends is loyalty. "
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" The main question in drama, the way I was taught, is always, 'What does the protagonist want?' That's what drama is. It comes down to that. It's not about theme, it's not about ideas, it's not about setting, but what the protagonist wants. "
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" Always tell the truth - it's the easiest thing to remember. "
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" A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue. "
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" When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry. "
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" The Israelis would like to live in peace within their borders; the Arabs would like to kill them all. "
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" You get rich through luck. You get rich through crime. You get rich through fulfilling the needs of another. You can be as greedy as you like. If you can't do one of those three things, you ain't going to get any money. "
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" In a world we find terrifying, we ratify that which doesn't threaten us. "
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World
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" I grew up in a tough neighborhood and we used to say you can get further with a kind word and a gun than just a kind word. "
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" I'm afraid of only two things: being lazy and being cowardly. "
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" The Founders recognized that Government is quite literally a necessary evil, that there must be opposition, between its various branches, and between political parties, for these are the only ways to temper the individual's greed for power and the electorates' desires for peace by submission to coercion or blandishment. "
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" American football seems to resemble soccer in that one scores by putting the ball through the opponent's goal; but football, truly is about land. The Settlers want to move the line of scrimmage Westward, the Native Americans want to move it East. "
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" In practice we, in the world, must do business with each other. "
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" Mixed martial arts was invented by Brazilians, whose families had been trained by the Japanese. Those Brazilians came to the U.S., where their invention was bought out, gussied up and presented to the world, which found it good. "
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" 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. "
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