Quotes from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cousin, depression.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the storyteller.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

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

“Most of life's actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“In life two negatives don't make a positive. Double negatives turn positive only in math and formal logic. In life things just get worse and worse and worse.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“(...)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, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“No matter our talent, we all know in the midnight of our souls that 90 percent of what we do is less than our best.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, 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, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Good story' means something worth telling that the world wants to hear. Finding this is your lonely task...But the love of a good story, of terrific characters and a world driven by your passion, courage, and creative gifts is still not enough. Your goal must be a good story well told.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“We realize we can't go around saying and doing what we're actually thinking and feeling. If we all did that, life would be a lunatic asylum. Indeed, that's how you know you're talking to a lunatic. Lunatics are those poor souls who have lost their inner communication and so they allow themselves to say and do exactly what they are thinking and feeling and that's why they're mad.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Secure writers don't sell first drafts. They patiently rewrite until the script is as director-ready, as actor-ready as possible. Unfinished work invites tampering, while polished, mature work seals its integrity.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Deus ex machina not only erases all meaning and emotion, it's an insult to the audience. Each of us knows we must choose and act, for better or worse, to determine the meaning of our lives...Deus ex machina is an insult because it is a lie.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Boredom is the inner conflict we suffer when we lose desire, when we lack a lacking.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Whereas life separates meaning from emotion, art unites them. Story is an instrument by which you create such epiphanies at will, the phenomenon known as aesthetic emotion...Life on its own, without art to shape it, leaves you in confusion and chaos, but aesthetic emotion harmonizes what you know with what you feel to give you a heightened awareness and a sureness of your place in reality.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“In comedy laughter settles all arguments.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Angry contradiction of the patriarch is not creativity; it's delinquency calling for attention. Difference for the sake of difference is as empty an achievement as slavishly following the commercial imperative.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“No civilization, including Plato's, has ever been destroyed because its citizens learned too much.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“A culture cannot evolve without honest, powerful storytelling. When a society repeatedly experiences glossy, hollowed-out, pseudo-stories, it degenerates. We need true satires and tragedies, dramas and comedies that shine a clean light into the dingy corners of the human psyche and society.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Politics is the name we give to the orchestration of power in any society.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“in comedy laughter settles all argument
فى الكوميديا، الضحك ينهى أى جدل”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Stories are the currency of human relationships.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Story isn’t a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries us on our search for reality,”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

“Story isn’t a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries us on our search for reality, our best effort to make sense out of the anarchy of existence.”
― Robert McKee, quote from Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

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Popular quotes

“by considering what has happened in East Timor since 1975, we can learn some important things about ourselves, our society, and our institutions. If we do not like what we find when we look at the facts—and few will fail to be appalled if they take an honest look—we can work to bring about changes in the practices and structure of institutions that cause terrible suffering and slaughter. To the extent that we see ourselves as citizens in a democratic community, we have a responsibility to devote our energies to these ends. The recent history of Timor provides a revealing insight into the policies of the U.S. government,”
― Noam Chomsky, quote from The Essential Chomsky

“Caution is always prudent. But we mustn't let fear pave the way of our feet." -Riyah”
― Jackie Castle, quote from Emanate

“In just one moment I had emerged from a world of dark green, almost black, to a world of bright blue and light sunshine. It was what I imagined birth to be like.”
― Margot Berwin, quote from Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire

“The little box that was given to me was by no means unique. I'd heard of prayer boxes, and I knew what they were for.
...Any scrap of paper will do, anywhere, anytime of the day or night. The important part, in a world of fractured thoughts, hurried moments, and scattershot prayers, is to take the time to think through, to write down, to clarify in your own mind the things you're asking for, the things you're grateful for, the things your're troubled about, the hopes you've been nurturing.
And then?
Put them in the box and...
Let. Them. Go.
That's what trust is. It's letting go of the worry. It's the way of peace and also the way of God. such a hard road to travel for people like me, who are worriers. When I'm writing a story, I control the whole universe. In life...not so much. Actually, not at all. Things happen that I hadn't anticipated and wouldn't choose and can't change. That's the tough part.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box

“Honey, you can’t bring a lover to work like he was a purse dog, otherwise Paul would never leave my side.” Sydney”
― Donna McDonald, quote from Dating a Cougar

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

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