Sidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky (January 29, 1923 - August 1, 1981) was an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for Best Screenplay for Marty, The Hospital, and Network. (Click here for full Wikipedia article)
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Artists don't talk about art. Artists talk about work. If I have anything to say to young writers, it's stop thinking of writing as art. Think of it as work.
God save us all from people who do the morally right thing. It's always the rest of us who get broken in half.
I'm a man without a corporation.
I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore.
I'm not sentimental about war. I see nothing noble in widows.
I'm not sure she's capable of any real feelings. She's the television
generation. She learned life from Bugs Bunny.
(from Network)
It's always the generals with the bloodiest records who are the first to shout what a hell it is. And it's always the war widows who lead the Memorial Day parades.
It's the world that's gone nuts, not me. It's the world that's turned into a satire.
Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew
anything that didn't come out of this tube! This tube is the gospel, the
ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes,
prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force
in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the
hands of the wrong people.
(spoken by Peter Finch as Howard Beale in Network)
Television is democracy at its ugliest.
Television is not the truth. Television is a goddamned amusement park.
The final truth of all things is that there is no final Truth. Truth is what's transitory. It's human life that is real.
The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business.
There's lots of things I'd die for ... my home, my family, my country. But that's love, not principle.
This is not a psychotic episode. This is a cleansing moment of clarity.
Wars are always fought for the best of reasons, for liberation or manifest destiny, always against tyranny and always in the best interests of humanity.
We are a gutted generation, born in the depression and obsessed with prosperity.
You don't send a man to his death because you want a hero.
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(January 29 is also the birthday of Thomas Paine and Anton Chekov)
Categories: Paddy Chayefsky, Quotes of the day
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