Martin McDonagh
Martin McDonagh
Martin McDonaghis a playwright, screenwriter and film director, born and brought up in London with both British and Irish citizenship. He has been described as one of the most important living Irish playwrights...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth26 March 1970
fun real dirty
My plays are always pushing towards cinema anyway. They're down and dirty, real and more fun.
growing-up realizing grows
I realize that I am never going to grow up.
art real lying
There have to be moments when you glimpse something decent, something life-affirming even in the most twisted character. That's where the real art lies. See, I always suspect characters who are painted as lovely, decent human beings. I would always question where the darkness lies.
art real drama
I suppose I walk that line between comedy and cruelty because I think one illuminates the other. We're all cruel, aren't we? We are all extreme in one way or another at times and that's what drama, since the Greeks, has dealt with. I hope the overall view isn't just that though, or I've failed in my writing. There have to be moments when you glimpse something decent, something life-affirming even in the most twisted character. That's where the real art lies.
almost amount cast cut finished playwright rehearsals
With a stage play, they can't cut a word; you can be in rehearsals every day, you cast it, you cast the director, too; the amount of control for a playwright is almost infinite, so you have that control over the finished product.
fell felt
I fell into the theatre because I felt I was doing it well, and I stuck to it for the same reason.
front
I can't stand up in front of people. It just fills me with horror.
block thinking sitting-down
I don't even subscribe to writer's block being a truthful thing. I've had writer's laziness quite often. But I think it's all about sitting down and facing down the blank page and doing it, and I've always been ok at that.
black balance comedy
All my work shares a kind of balance between black comedy and sad and despairing melancholy.
behinds
It isn't about being or not being dead, it's about what you leave behind
years ideas two
It's like two years straight out of your life doing a film. It's very enjoyable, especially working with the guys, but I kind of like the idea of traveling and growing, and developing as a writer and as a filmmaker.
way feels being-irish
I don't feel I have to defend myself for being English or for being Irish, because, in a way, I don't feel either. And, in another way, of course, I'm both.
queens thinking people
I think as a writer you never have to flee from fame because you're not that visible in the first place, but, after the Broadway success of 'Beauty Queen,' people were coming up to me all the time, and I wasn't really prepared for that level of attention.
writing thinking games
I think if you're writing a play, it should be its own end game; you'll never get to do a good one unless you know it's not a blueprint for a film; you're not going to get the action right and the story right.