A biography for David Mamethasn’t been written yet.
“I used to think I'd like to be a fireman - in fact, I still would - and the only drawback I could see was coming back to the firehouse, after a day of fighting fires, and still having to put in an eight-hour day writing.”
“I've been alienating my public since I was 20 years old.”
“If you're writing an opinion piece, it's your job to write your opinion. If, on the other hand, you wrote a novel, as Virginia Woolf tells us, it would be inappropriate if you let your novel be influenced by your political opinions.”
“The quality I most admire in a man is steadfastness.”
“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.”
“The Israelis would like to live in peace within their borders; the Arabs would like to kill them all.”
“I was fortunate enough to have a rambling youth.”
“I don't really have a social life.”
“I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind.”
“A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.”
“Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.”
“The individual is not only best qualified to provide his own personal defense, he is the only one qualified to do so: and his right to do so is guaranteed by the Constitution.”
“In a world we find terrifying, we ratify that which doesn't threaten us.”
“The product of the artist has become less important than the fact of the artist. We wish to absorb this person. We wish to devour someone who has experienced the tragic. In our society this person is much more important than anything he might create.”
“When we leave the play saying how spectacular the sets or costumes were, or how interesting the ideas, it means we had a bad time.”
“They say you can't study Kabbalah until you are at least 40 years old. You know why? You have to have experienced at least one generation making the same mistakes as the previous one.”
“What I value most in my friends is loyalty.”
“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.”
“When I started out I was a failed actor.”
“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.”