Paddy's Fans (6)

Paddy Chayefsky

Author profile

born

January 29, 1923 in New York City, The United States

died

August 01, 1981

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction, Humor, Screenplays

About this author

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Sidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky , was an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for Best Screenplay.

He was considered one of the most renowned dramatists of the so-called Golden Age of Television. His intimate, realistic scripts provided a naturalistic style of television drama for the 1950s, and he was regarded as the central figure in the "kitchen sink realism" movement of American television.

Following his critically acclaimed teleplays, Chayefsky continued to succeed as a playwright and novelist. As a screenwriter, he received three Academy Awards for Marty (1955), The Hospital (1971) and Network (1976). Marty was based on his own television drama about a relationship b...more

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Books by Paddy Chayefsky

Average rating: 3.87 · 270 ratings · 18 reviews · 13 distinct works

	Altered States 3.68 avg rating — 187 ratings — published 1978 — 7 editions	My rating:
	The Collected Works: The Screenplays, Vol. 2: The Hospital / Network / Altered States 4.68 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2000 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Collected Works of Paddy Chayefsky: The Stage Plays 4.50 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 1994 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Tenth Man 4.11 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 1960 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Collected Works of Paddy Chayefsky: The Television Plays 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2000	My rating:
	Television Plays 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1955 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Gideon 3.50 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1962	My rating:
	Look Homeward, Angel and Other Modern Plays by Paddy Chayefsky, Ketti Frings, Tad Mosel 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1969	My rating:
	Middle of the Night 3.20 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2007 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Hospital 3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings	My rating:

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Quotes by Paddy Chayefsky

“Television is democracy at its ugliest.”
― Paddy Chayefsky

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“Artists don't talk about art. Artists talk about work. If I have anything to say to young writers, it's stop thinking of writing as art. Think of it as work.”
― Paddy Chayefsky

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“I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”
― Paddy Chayefsky, Network [Screenplay]

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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