All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.
Robert MckeeRead
Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Audiences often prefer entertaining stories over profound messages if the latter is poorly presented.
This quote by Robert McKee highlights the importance of storytelling and presentation in communication. It suggests that even the most profound ideas can be overlooked if they are not shared in an engaging and captivating manner, while superficial topics can capture an audience's attention when delivered with skill and flair.
Themes
StorytellingPresentationAudienceEngagementCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
During a workshop on effective communication, this quote can be used to stress the importance of presentation skills.
More from Robert Mckee
All quotes βStories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.
Robert MckeeRead
Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.
Robert MckeeRead
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.
Robert MckeeRead
Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.
Robert MckeeRead
We rarely know where we are going; writing is a discovery.
Robert MckeeRead
Similar quotes
What we want... is for students to get more interested in things, more involved in them, more engaged in wanting to know; to have projects that they can get excited about and work on over long periods of time, to be stimulated to find things out on their own.
Howard GardnerRead
I had a stormy graduate career, where every week we would have a shouting match. I kept doing deals where I would say, 'Okay, let me do neural nets for another six months, and I will prove to you they work.' At the end of the six months, I would say, 'Yeah, but I am almost there. Give me another six months.'
Geoffrey HintonRead
Reading and writing and the preservation of language and its forms and the kind of eloquence and the kind of beauty which the language is capable of is terribly important to the human beings because this is connected to thought.
Iris MurdochRead
The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.
William JamesRead
We must always meet our obligation to those who fall behind without our assistance. But let's remember, without a race there can be no champion, no records broken, no excellence - in education or any other walk of life.
Ronald ReaganRead
Performers should really go to the best schools, like Lady Gaga, you know, she went to NYU and had great teachers... It's best to really study your technique as much as you possibly can so you can have a long career instead of a quick one that's a failure.
Tony BennettRead