Robert McKee Quotes

Deus ex machina not only erases all meaning and emotion, it's an insult to the audience. Each of us knows we must choose and act, for better or worse, to determine the meaning of our lives...Deus ex machina is an insult because it is a lie.

The Law of Diminishing Returns is true of everything in life, except sex, which seems endlessly repeatable with effect.

All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.

Curiosity is the intellectual need to answer questions and close open patterns. Story plays to this universal desire by doing the opposite, posing questions and opening situations.

If the story you're telling, is the story you're telling, you're in deep shit.

In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.

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

What happens is fact, not truth. Truth is what we think about what happens.