Robert McKee Quotes

We often see films with a cast of excellent characters...except one, who's dreadful. We wonder why until we realize that the writer hates this character. He's trivializing and insulting this role at every opportunity. And I'll never understand this. How can a writer hate his own character? It's his baby. How can he hate what he gave life? Embrace all your creations, especially the bad people. They deserve love like everyone else.

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.

Story isn’t a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries us on our search for reality,

When forced to work within a strict framework the imagination is taxed to its utmost — and will produce its richest ideas. Given total freedom the work is likely to sprawl. — T. S. ELIOT

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.

The audience wants to be taken to the limit, to where all questions are answered, all emotion satisfied — the end of the line.

No hay en este mundo suficiente de nada para todos. No hay suficientes alimentos, suficiente amor, suficiente justicia y nunca hay suficiente tiempo.

Quality storytelling inspires quality dialogue.

In comedy laughter settles all arguments.

At Crisis the protagonist's willpower is most severely tested. As we know from life, decisions are far more difficult to make than actions are to take. We often put off doing something for as long as possible, then as we finally make the decision and step into the action, we're surprised by its relative ease. We're left to wonder why we dreaded doing it until we realize that most of life's actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower.

The only way to know the truth is to witness him make choices under pressure to take one action or another in the pursuit of his desire.

Second, once inside this alien world, we find ourselves. Deep within these characters and their conflicts we discover our own humanity.

You do not keep the audience's interest by giving it information, but by withholding information ....

"When society repeatedly experiences glossy, hollowed-out, pseudo-stories, it degenerates. We need true satires and tragedies, dramas and comedies that shine a cean light into the dingy corners of the human psyche and society. If not, as Yeats warned, "...the centre can not hold.

Generally, great writers are not eclectic. Each tightly focuses his oeuvre on one idea, a single subject that ignites his passion, a subject he pursues with beautiful variation through a lifetime of work.