Martin McDonagh Quotes

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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].

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.

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

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

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.

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

I think as a writer you never have to flee from fame because you're not that visible in the first place, but, after the Broadway success of 'Beauty Queen,' people were coming up to me all the time, and I wasn't really prepared for that level of attention.

I realize that I am never going to grow up.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The fact that ticket prices are way too expensive, and there's only one bunch of people going to see Broadway shows, is something I've never liked.

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.

I never feel like a smug or a smart-alec film director, and there are plenty of those around.

I seldom feel comfortable in a theatre. I always feel like I own a cinema. I feel equally happy in an empty one as a full one. Probably happier in an empty one!

I pick and choose what I want to do at any given time, and what not to do, importantly. My agents, I won't hear about any offers or options.

It's like two years straight out of your life doing a film. It's very enjoyable, especially working with the guys, but I kind of like the idea of traveling and growing, and developing as a writer and as a filmmaker.

Theatre was an art form that I didn't really respect, and because I wanted to shake it up and do different things on stage, I was able to combine all the things I'd learnt through writing on my own.

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

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

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

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.

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.