Robert McKee
Robert McKee
Robert McKeeis 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"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
CountryUnited States of America
stories answers helping
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.
lonely character mean
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 goal must be a good story well told.
creativity differences achievement
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.
communication thinking talking
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 inner communication and so they allow themselves to say and do exactly what they are thinking and feeling and that's why they're mad.
integrity unfinished-work actors
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.
profound choices given
Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly.
slow-motion influence persuasion
Influence is just persuasion in slow motion.
boredom suffering desire
Boredom is the inner conflict we suffer when we lose desire, when we lack a lacking.
plato civilization too-much
No civilization, including Plato's, has ever been destroyed because its citizens learned too much.
names giving orchestration
Politics is the name we give to the orchestration of power in any society.
culture stories bigs
Stories build cultures by answering the big questions.
philosophical mean wish
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 what it means. And that's my wish for you: that you would have both.
sleep advice problem
Never sleep with anybody who has more problems than you do.
stories originality duplication
Story is about originality, not duplication