Robert McKee > Quotes

“Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.”
― Robert McKee

“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.”
― Robert McKee

“If the story you're telling, is the story you're telling, you're in deep shit.”
― Robert McKee, Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“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.”
― Robert McKee, Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Beyond imagination and insight, the most important component of talent is perseverance—the will to write and rewrite in pursuit of perfection. Therefore, when inspiration sparks the desire to write, the artist immediately asks: Is this idea so fascinating, so rich in possibility, that I want to spend months, perhaps years, of my life in pursuit of its fulfillment? Is this concept so exciting that I will get up each morning with the hunger to write? Will this inspiration compel me to sacrifice all of life's other pleasures in my quest to perfect its telling? If the answer is no, find another idea. Talent and time are a writer's only assets. Why give your life to an idea that's not worth your life?”
― Robert McKee

“(...)while it's true that the unexamined life is not worth living, it's also true that the unlived life isn't worth examining.”
― Robert McKee, Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“What happens is fact, not truth. Truth is what we think about what happens.”
― Robert McKee

“We rarely know where we are going; writing is a discovery.”
― Robert McKee