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

Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time.

Robert McKee

Politics is the name we give to the orchestration of power in any society.

Robert McKee

The Law of Diminishing Returns is true of everything in life, except sex, which seems endlessly repeatable with effect.

Robert McKee

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

If the story you're telling, is the story you're telling, you're in deep shit.

Robert McKee

Curiosity is the intellectual need to answer questions and close open patterns. Story plays to this universal desire by doing the opposite, posing questions and opening situations.

Robert McKee

What happens is fact, not truth. Truth is what we think about what happens.

Robert McKee

Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for sto...

Robert McKee

Aristotle said time is a measure of change, and this movie is about changing in time, through time, while remaining the same person. That's a philosophical paradox and a moral dilemma. But 'Casablanca' says it's possible. You can have both. That's wh...

Robert McKee

Classical design is a mirror of the human mind. It's how we see the world.

Robert McKee

The students realize that it's their life I'm talking about: it's out of balance, they're struggling to put it into balance. How are they going to do it?

Robert McKee

Oh, by the way, I tend to use a lot of profanities. I do that for a reason: I like it.

Robert McKee

I cannot be a character in a bad movie. I can't be.

Robert McKee

Author Bio

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