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

Robert McKee Quotes

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

— 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

We rarely know where we are going; writing is a discovery.

— 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
About Actors

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

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

— 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

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

— Robert McKee

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

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

— Robert McKee
Artist

Writing is a marathon, not a sprint.

— Robert McKee

Life is chaotic and meaningless, and you have to find your meaning. You must find the answer, you can’t just live. That’s the point of story: helping you find your meaning in life.

— Robert McKee
Helping

Influence is just persuasion in slow motion.

— Robert McKee

Stories build cultures by answering the big questions.

— Robert McKee

The material of literary talent is words; the material of story talent is life itself.

— Robert McKee

Talent without craft is like fuel without an engine, it burns wildly but accomplishes nothing.

— Robert McKee

Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists and bullet points.

— Robert McKee

Stories are the currency of human relationships.

— Robert McKee

Never sleep with anybody who has more problems than you do.

— Robert McKee

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

— Robert McKee
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