Martin McDonagh Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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.

  Martin McDonagh

  Art, Real, Drama

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• If you've got time to waste, you might as well waste it listening to people.

  Martin McDonagh

  People, Listening, Crafts

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• Though it may not seem like it, I never try to write about a place, per se; it's always, first and last, about story. Story is everything. Story and a bit of attitude.

  Martin McDonagh

  Attitude, Writing, Trying

  "The wild west" by Sean O'Hagan, www.theguardian.com. March 23, 2001.

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• 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.

  Martin McDonagh

  Art, Lying, Real

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• 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].

  Martin McDonagh

  Thinking, Stories, World

  Source: collider.com

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• It doesn't feel like you're preaching, if you can say something in a joke.

  Martin McDonagh

  Like You, Preaching, Feels

  Source: collider.com

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• All my work shares a kind of balance between black comedy and sad and despairing melancholy.

  Martin McDonagh

  Black, Balance, Comedy

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• It's the periods and the commas that you have to forget about. The words never change, but the intonations change.

  Martin McDonagh

  Forget, Never Change, Periods

  Source: collider.com

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• I realize that I am never going to grow up.

  Martin McDonagh

  Growing Up, Realizing, Grows

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• 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.

  Martin McDonagh

  Way, Feels, Being Irish

  "The wild west". Interview with Sean O'Hagan, www.theguardian.com. March 23, 2001.

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• When I'm happiest writing is just not knowing where it goes and just let the characters bring you there.

  Martin McDonagh

  Writing, Character, Knowing

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• I hope there's some kind of morality in all my work.

  Martin McDonagh

  Morality, Kind

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• 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.

  Martin McDonagh

  Thinking, People, Looks

  "Martin McDonagh, Our New Norman Mailer" by Lea Carpenter, bigthink.com.

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• 'Pulp Fiction' is an amazing film, and I haven't made one nearly as good.

  Martin McDonagh

  Fiction, Film, Made

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• 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.

  Martin McDonagh

  Block, Thinking, Sitting Down

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• I never really tell anyone what I'm writing beforehand because I usually don't know what it will be.

  Martin McDonagh

  Writing

  Source: collider.com

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• An Irishman I am, begora! With a heart and a spirit on
  me not crushed be a hundred years of oppression. I'll be getting me
  shillelagh out next, wait'll you see.

  Martin McDonagh

  Heart, Years, Waiting

  Martin McDonagh (2013). “The Cripple Of Inishmaan”, p.63, A&C Black

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• When you've got good actors, they're going to come up with good stuff, but you're never quite sure how the dynamics are going to work between them.

  Martin McDonagh

  Actors, Dynamics, Stuff

  "Martin McDonagh on the violence and camaraderie of his Seven Psychopaths". Interview with Scott Tobias, www.avclub.com. October 11, 2012.

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• It isn't about being or not being dead, it's about what you leave behind

  Martin McDonagh

  Behinds

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• I won't work on anyone's else's script. I won't write for anyone else. I write my own stuff and make that when the time is right.

  Martin McDonagh

  Writing, Stuff, Scripts

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• I love actors. Part of that is my theater background and being a writer who cares about performance. Actors have usually chosen their profession because they have a dream of doing it and they want to express something about the world. That's the same thing that I have with writing. Most of the good actors get into it for those reason, rather than for reasons of fame or fortune, or anything like that, and that's where I'm coming from, as a storyteller.

  Martin McDonagh

  Dream, Writing, World

  "Martin McDonagh on Directing 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' and Writing for Frances McDormand". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. November 12, 2017.

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• I'd just like to thank everybody who was involved in the film, especially Brendan Gleeson and Ruaidhrí Conroy. And Ruaidhrí, I'm sorry that you couldn't be here tonight but I hope next time, if they let you into the country.

  Martin McDonagh

  Country, Sorry, Tonight

  Martin McDonagh's Academy Awards Acceptance Speech, aaspeechesdb.oscars.org. March 5, 2006.

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• I like traveling and I like not being part of the film world. Especially when you're in the middle of a junket, you're thinking, "I'm not doing this again for four years!"That's about taking time and finding the right story and being in a happy place in life where you can joyfully tell a story. I'm not really into the fame side of things, so I'm very happy with making a film every four years or so.

  Martin McDonagh

  Thinking, World, Film

  Source: collider.com

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• My plays are always pushing towards cinema anyway. They're down and dirty, real and more fun.

  Martin McDonagh

  Fun, Real, Dirty

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• 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.

  Martin McDonagh

  Writing, Thinking, Play

  "Interview: Martin McDonagh On A ‘Pillowman’ Movie, ‘Seven Psychopaths’ And The Genius Of Sam Rockwell". Interview with Oliver Lyttelton, www.indiewire.com. December 6, 2012.

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