Explore Quotes by Robert Mckee

Stories are the currency of human relationships.

Classical design is a mirror of the human mind. It's how we see the world.

Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists and bullet points.

Talent without craft is like fuel without an engine, it burns wildly but accomplishes nothing.

The mark of a master is to select only a few moments, but give us a lifetime.

Story isn't a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries us on our search for reality.

Night after night, through years of performing and directing, I've stood in awe of the audience, of its capacity for response. As if by magic, masks fall away, faces become vulnerable, receptive. Filmgoers do not defend their emotions, rather they open to the storyteller in ways even their lovers never know, welcoming laughter, tears, terror, rage, compassion, passion, love, hate--the ritual often exhausts them.

The material of literary talent is words; the material of story talent is life itself.

To connect to people at the deepest level, you need stories.

The principle of Creative Limitations calls for freedom within a circle of obstacles and restricted boundaries. Talent is like a muscle: without something to push against, it atrophies. So we deliberately put obstacles in our path - barriers that will inspire us. We disciple ourselves as to what to do, while we're boundless as to how to do it.

God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.

Writing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Of all the reasons for wanting to write, the only one that nurtures us through time is love of the work itself.

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.

Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.

Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly.

The Business story is designed to trigger the listener to take an effective action. If it doesn't, the story fails.

No civilization, including Plato's, has ever been destroyed because its citizens learned too much.

Story is morally neutral. It can express profound truth or propaganda. The two greatest political storytellers of the 20th Century were Winston Churchill and Adolph Hitler. Because storytelling is a form of persuasive jujitsu, and because world is full of black belt storytellers, the corporate leader has to train both his offensive and defensive moves

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.

Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time.