On Directing Film Quotes

“The audience can endorse the triviality of modern art, but they can’t like it.”
― David Mamet, On Directing Film

“Good luck will be the residue of good design.”
― David Mamet, On Directing Film

“The job of the film director is to tell the story through the juxtaposition of uninflected images—because that is the essential nature of the medium.”
― David Mamet, On Directing Film

“Just so with the movie, which is why bad filmmaking can "succeed." It is our nature to want to make sense of these events—we can't help it. The human mind would make sense of them even if they were a random juxtaposition.”
― David Mamet, On Directing Film

“Performance art" works, as it's the nature of human perception to order random images in favor of an overriding preconception. Another example of this is neurosis. Neurosis is the ordering of unrelated events or ideas or images in favor of an overriding preconception.
"I am," for example, "an unsightly person": that's the overriding preconception. then given any two unrelated events I can order them to make them mean that. "Oh, yes, I understand. This woman came out of the hall and did not seem to notice me and rushed into the elevator and quickly pushed the button and the elevator closed because I am an unattractive person.”
― David Mamet, On Directing Film