Robert McKee Quotes

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.

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

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.

Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.

Stories are the currency of human relationships.

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

Leaders use story to author the future.

A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.

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

Stories build cultures by answering the big questions.

Story is about eternal, universal forms, not formulas.

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

To get the truth, you want to get your own heart to pound while you write.

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

We rarely know where we are going; writing is a discovery.

A culture cannot evolve without honest, powerful storytelling. When a society repeatedly experiences glossy, hollowed-out, pseudo-stories, it degenerates. We need true satires and tragedies, dramas and comedies that shine a clean light into the dingy corners of the human psyche and society.

Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.

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

Don't be didactic - don't write about poverty. Write about poor people. When you dramatize their lives and let life and characters be your inspiration, you will express the 'idea' dynamically and without preaching.

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

When talented people write badly, it's generally for one of two reasons: Either they're blinded by an idea they feel compelled to prove of they're driven by an emotion they must express. When talented people write well, it is generally for this reason: They're moved by a desire to touch the audience.

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

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.

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

We often put off doing something for as long as possible, then as we finally make the decision and step into the action, we're surprised by its relative ease. We're left to wonder why we dreaded it until we realize that most of life's actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower.