Robert McKee Quotes

If the story you're telling, is the story you're telling, you're in deep shit.

1930

When talented people write badly, it's generally for one of two reasons: Either they're blinded by an idea they feel compelled to prove of they're driven by an emotion they must express. When talented people write well, it is generally for this reason: They're moved by a desire to touch the audience.

4234

All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.

4909

What happens is fact, not truth. Truth is what we think about what happens.

2578

No civilization, including Plato's, has ever been destroyed because its citizens learned too much.

1138

Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time.

4816

Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cousin, depression.

3526

Politics is the name we give to the orchestration of power in any society.

4712

The Law of Diminishing Returns is true of everything in life, except sex, which seems endlessly repeatable with effect.

3571

True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.

2649

A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.

3735

In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.

3652

No matter our talent, we all know in the midnight of our souls that 90 percent of what we do is less than our best.

1958

Good story' means something worth telling that the world wants to hear. Finding this is your lonely task...But the love of a good story, of terrific characters and a world driven by your passion, courage, and creative gifts is still not enough. Your goal must be a good story well told.

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