Sisyphean Book Review - True & False

True & False by David Mamet

An excellent and inspiring book by the great David Mamet. In it he expounds on the doctrine of the true artist. In the process he debunks the fakery of 'method' and takes the art, and particularly the craft, of acting back to its basics.

"...If you decide to become an actor, stick to your decision. The folks you meet in supposed positions of authority--critics, teachers, casting directors--will, in the main, be your intellectual and moral inferiors. They will lack your imagination, which is why they became bureaucrats rather than artists; and they will lack your fortitude, having elected institutional support over a life of self-reliance. They spend their lives learning lessons very different from the ones you learn, and many or most of them will envy you and this envy will express itself as contempt. It's a cheap trick of unhappy people, and if you understand it for what it is, you need not adopt or be overly saddened by their view of you. It is the view of the folks on the verandah talking about the lazy slaves."

Buy it, Borrow it, Steal it. READ IT!