Robert McKee

Robert McKee
Robert McKeeis a creative writing instructor who is widely known for his popular "Story Seminar", which he developed when he was a professor at the University of Southern California. McKee is the author of a "screenwriters' bible" called Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. Online, McKee has a blog and a writers' resource website called "Storylogue"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
CountryUnited States of America
believe faces skeptic
It seems to me that the civilized human being is a skeptic someone who believes nothing at face value.
leader stories use
Leaders use story to author the future.
smart book bullshit
When people want to sound smart, they add syllables to words, words to sentences, sentences to paragraphs, paragraphs to books. They try to make up in quantity and complexity what they lack in quality. That's bullshit! They're just hiding their bullshit!
stories talent materials
The material of literary talent is words; the material of story talent is life itself.
stories life-is metaphor
Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time.
stories action failing
The Business story is designed to trigger the listener to take an effective action. If it doesn't, the story fails.
laughter hate fall
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.
art liars lying
In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.
creativity writing heart
To get the truth, you want to get your own heart to pound while you write.
hero writing skills
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.
writing play imagination
If you can't play all the instruments in the orchestra of story, no matter what music may be in your imagination, you're condemned to hum the same old tune.
cousin war winning
Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cousin, depression.
meaningful emotional museums
When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the storyteller.
thinking facts truth-is
What happens is fact, not truth. Truth is what we think about what happens.