David Mamet

Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.

Here's what happens in a play. You get involved in a situation where something is unbalanced. If nothing's unbalanced, there's no reason to have a play. If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad's not dead and asks him if he's had a good time, it's boring. But if something's unbalanced, it must be returned to order.

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.

I understand that computers, which I once believed to be but a hermaphrodite typewriter-cum-filing cabinet, offer the cyber literate increased ability to communicate. I do not think this is altogether a bad thing, however it may appear on the surface.

I always thought the real violence in Hollywood isn't what's on the screen. It's what you have to do to raise the money.

I know very well what it is to be out of work and to be cheated by employers and I know what it is to be an employer.

There's no such thing as talent; you just have to work hard enough.

When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.

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.