Quotes by Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

Explore a curated collection of 25 quotes by Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. Discover timeless wisdom, insightful thoughts, and memorable words that have inspired readers around the world. Browse through the gallery below and click on any quote to read more.

If the story you're telling, is the story you're telling, you're in deep shit. — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
When talented people write badly, it's generally for one of two reasons: Either they're blinded by an idea they feel com — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant. — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
No civilization, including Plato's, has ever been destroyed because its citizens learned too much. — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time. — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cous — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Politics is the name we give to the orchestration of power in any society. — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
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, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to ano — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility. — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Good story' means something worth telling that the world wants to hear. Finding this is your lonely task...But the love — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
The Law of Diminishing Returns is true of everything in life, except sex, which seems endlessly repeatable with effect. — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Scholarly acumen sharpens taste and judgment, but we must never mistake criticism for art. Intellectual analysis, howeve — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Whereas life separates meaning from emotion, art unites them. Story is an instrument by which you create such epiphanies — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Boredom is the inner conflict we suffer when we lose desire, when we lack a lacking. — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Most of life's actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower. — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Deus ex machina not only erases all meaning and emotion, it's an insult to the audience. Each of us knows we must choose — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
We realize we can't go around saying and doing what we're actually thinking and feeling. If we all did that, life would — Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting