Quotes by Robert McKee

About Robert McKee:

Robert McKee is a creative writing instructor who is widely known for his popular "Story Seminar", which he developed when he was a professor at the University of Southern California. McKee is the author of a "screenwriters' bible" called Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. Online, McKee has a blog and a writers' resource website called "Storylogue".
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Most of life's actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower.

Robert McKee

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

In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.

Robert McKee

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,...

Robert McKee

Boredom is the inner conflict we suffer when we lose desire, when we lack a lacking.

Robert McKee

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

Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly.

Robert McKee

No civilization, including Plato's, has ever been destroyed because its citizens learned too much.

Robert McKee

In comedy laughter settles all arguments.

Robert McKee

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 ...

Robert McKee

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 reaso...

Robert McKee

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

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

All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.

Robert McKee

Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.

Robert McKee

When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the storyteller.

Robert McKee

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 in...

Robert McKee

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

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

Author Bio

  • NameRobert McKee
  • DescriptionAmerican academic
  • Born1941
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Screenwriter; Playwright