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Robert McKee Biography

Robert McKee (born 1941) is 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".

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Robert McKee Quotes

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

Design, Human, Mind, Mirror, Mirrors

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.

Answers, Helping, Meaning, Stories, Story

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

Happens, Inspirational, Stories, Think, Thinking, Truth

There is no screenplay-writing recipe that guarantees your cake will rise.

Cake, Guarantees, Recipe, Rise, Writing

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.

Circles, Creativity, Disciple, Inspiration, Inspire, Obstacles

It seems to me that the civilized human being is a skeptic someone who believes nothing at face value.

Believe, Civilized, Faces, Human, Skeptic

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

People, Needs, Stories, Connect, Deepest

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

Choices, Choose, Given, Profound, Told

Whereas life separates meaning from emotion, art unites them. Story is an instrument by which you create such epiphanies at will, the phenomenon known as aesthetic emotion. . . Life on its own, without art to shape it, leaves you in confusion and chaos, but aesthetic emotion harmonizes what you know with what you feel to give you a heightened awareness and a sureness of your place in reality.

Art, Epiphanies, Giving, Heightened, Instrument, Reality

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

Flight, Reality, Search, Stories, Vehicle

No matter our talent, we all know in the midnight of our souls that 90 percent of what we do is less than our best.

Matter, Midnight, Percent, Soul

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.

Art, Silence, Mind, Work

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.

Long, Decision, Ease, Surprised, Realize

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.

Boldly, Dance, Hero, Hour, Skills, Writing

Most of life's actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower.

Action, Actions, Decision, Decisions, Willpower

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

Bullets, Lists, Remember, Stories, Tend

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!

Add, Book, Make, People, Quantity, Smart

Good story' means something worth telling that the world wants to hear. Finding this is your lonely task. . . But the love of a good story, of terrific characters and a world driven by your passion, courage, and creative gifts is still not enough. Your goal must be a good story well told.

Character, Finding, Lonely, Passion, Task, Telling

Of the total creative effort represented in a finished work, 75 percent or more of a writer's labor goes into designing the story designing story tests the maturity and insight of the writer, his knowledge of society, nature, and the human heart. Story demands both vivid imagination and powerful analytic thought.

Designing, Heart, Maturity, Powerful, Represented, Society

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.

Character, Express, Inspiration, Life, Lives, Writing

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