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
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.
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.
thinking stories world
It's the way that I think about the world, and the way that I like to tell stories - I don't think you should get too heavy. There's enough out there, in the world, with violence. I think that comedy lightens the heaviness [of the world].
thinking people looks
Dublin people think they are the center of the world and the center of Ireland. And they don't realize that people have to leave Ireland to get work, and they look down on people who do.
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.
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
fun real dirty
My plays are always pushing towards cinema anyway. They're down and dirty, real and more fun.
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.
theatre cinema empty
I seldom feel comfortable in a theatre. I always feel like I own a cinema. I feel equally happy in an empty one as a full one. Probably happier in an empty one!