Quotes by Beau Willimon - Page 1

I don't think that Washington is a fundamentally bad or corrupt place.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Corrupt
Fundamentally
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My jobs on campaigns were pretty low on the totem pole - I was an advance man.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Jobs
Men
Campaigns
Advance
Low
Pole
Totem
Totem Pole
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I certainly keep my eye on Washington all the time because often life is stranger than fiction.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Stranger
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The fact that slavery is written into the Constitution is about as entrenched a form of classism as you could possibly imagine.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Constitution
Facts
Slavery
Entrenched
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You just have to re-wire your brain when you're shifting from the stage to the screen or the silver screen or the HD flat screen.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Silver
Screen
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You just have to re-wire your brain when you’re shifting from the stage to the screen, or the silver screen or the HD flat screen.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Brain
Shifting
Wire
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When you're creating new roles out of scratch in my opinion working with the actors is a great asset. You can learn a lot from that.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Creating
Roles
Scratches
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The checks and balances is a way to prevent government from either devolving into an autocratic tyranny or an autocratic mob mentality.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Government
Balance
Checks
Mentality
Tyranny
Way
Autocratic
Balances
Checks And Balances
Either
Mob
Prevent
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We all experience power struggles in our lives - at the workplace, with our friends, in our love lives. In a way, we're all politicians.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Love Life
Our Love
Struggle
Workplace
Politicians
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The political world is a dark place. If you want to portray it accurately, authentically, you've got to turn out the lights from time to time.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Accurately
Time Political World
Dark Place
From Time To Time
Lights
Political World
Portray
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The reality is that politicians, in terms of the amount of power they wield and the amount that they work, don't actually make that much money.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Work Power Money
Politicians
Wield
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If you work hard and play by the rules, you'll have a better life than your parents did, and your children will have a better life than you did.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Children
Hard Work
Play
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When you have both parties who will not find ways to compromise, who won't meet in the middle, you have paralysis. It's the perversion of idealism.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Compromise
Idealism
Paralysis
Party
Perversion
Way
Will Find Who
Both Parties
Parties
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Tales of power and ambition and intrigue and betrayal and desire - when you're telling those in a big way, you automatically want to go to Shakespeare.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Ambition
Betrayal
Desire
Intrigue
Tales
Automatically
Big Way
Shakespeare
Telling
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The economics of being a playwright are abysmal. I like to think of the work I do out in Hollywood as a way to actually make a life in the theater easier.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Abysmal
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People in D.C. are so psyched when anyone dramatizes them in an exciting way. They're a lot more open to looking at the nastier side of themselves than the media is.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Looking People Way
Psyched
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If you really think that ambition, power, lust, desire are not as applicable in the media as in politics or on Wall Street or anywhere else, you're deluding yourself.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Ambition
Desire
Lust
Media
Wall
Anywhere
Anywhere Else
Applicable
Street
Wall Street
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Money is finite; it's limited by a number and what you can buy with it. Power has no limits if you're willing to go far enough in order to get as much of it as you can.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Finite
Limits
Willing
Buy
Number
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The way I see politics is, I don't think it's cynical to accept the fact politicians are human beings, that they're flawed, and they represent the best and the worst of us.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Flawed
Politicians
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The media doesn't create narratives, really. They're not that powerful. What they do is they tap into narratives that are already bubbling amongst their viewership or readership.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Media
Powerful
Readership
Bubbling
Tap
Narratives
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In the best possible scenario, whenever you get notes from people, they're good notes, and they see things that you wouldn't have seen otherwise, and they make you a better writer.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Notes
People
Scenarios
Best Good Better
Better Writer
Scenario
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Richard III is not likeable. Macbeth is not likeable. Hamlet is not likeable. And yet you can't take your eyes off them. I'm far more interested in that than I am in any sort of likeability.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Likeable
Interested
Eyes
Far
Hamlet
Richard
Iii
Macbeth
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Film is much more visual, a scene is typically a lot shorter, you’re dealing with a lot more characters, a lot more locations and you’re able to rely on things that you just can never do on the stage.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Able
Character
Location
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Film is much more visual, a scene is typically a lot shorter, you're dealing with a lot more characters, a lot more locations, and you're able to rely on things that you just can never do on the stage.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Rely
Visual
Dealing
Locations
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A lot of people have asked me whether I am a cynic or take a cynical view of politics and are often surprised when I say that I consider myself an optimist, but an optimist dressed in the robes of a realist.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Cynic
Realist
Asked
Consider
Dressed
View
Surprised
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In Washington, if you're a congressman or a senator or the President, you make much more money than the average American, but you'd think that if you were the leader of the free world you'd be making major bank, and you don't.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Average
Congressman
Free World
Leader
Thinking
Average American
Bank
Senator
Washington
Major
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I don't desire happiness. I think it's a myth, and I don't think it's... and it makes you complacent. I feel very satisfyingly uncomfortable. I have the freedom to feel uncomfortable in the way I want to, is maybe a way to put it.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Happiness
Complacent
Desire
Myth
Uncomfortable
Feel
Very
Makes
Put
Maybe
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At home I mostly stick to online Scrabble, or chess or Risk - games I find far less addictive than the spectacular games created for consoles these days. But, whenever I get the chance I head over to my friend Kyri’s house to play his PS3.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Home
Games
Play
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At home I mostly stick to online Scrabble, or chess or Risk - games I find far less addictive than the spectacular games created for consoles these days. But, whenever I get the chance, I head over to my friend Kyri's house to play his PS3.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Chance
Chess
Games
Online
Risk
Scrabble
Spectacular
Addictive
Friend
Consoles
Far Less
Head
Mostly
My Friend
Stick
Whenever
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This is the way I think about politics: We want two diametrically opposed things from a politician. On one hand we want them to be bastions of moral integrity, perfect people, saints. And on the other hand, we want them to be effective leaders.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Diametrically
Effective
Perfect People
Saints
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In politics, it's very theatrical. There's a lot of stage craft. The campaign is trying to tell a story that they want people to believe in, and candidates are playing the role, like actors, by a creative personae that people will be attracted to.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Candidates
Theatrical
Politics Believe People
Campaign
Craft
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In politics, it's very theatrical. There’s a lot of stage craft. The campaign is trying to tell a story that they want people to believe in, and candidates are playing the role, like actors, by a creative personae that people will be attracted to.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Believe
Creative
People
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Is self-interest a bad thing? We want our leaders to be pure and good, but at the same time we want them to be effective, and to be effective you often have to be ruthless and not bound by ideology or the same morals that we pretend to hold ourselves to.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Ideology
Leader
Pure
Ruthless
Self
Self Interest
Want
Time Good Bad
Bad Thing
Bound
Pretend
Effective
Morals
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Real leaders have to live a paradoxical life, where they must break the rules in order to maintain them. If your expectations are high, you're setting yourself up for disillusionment. The land of governance is paved with gray streets, not black or white ones.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Black Or White
Break
Disillusionment
Governance
Gray
Order
Paradoxical
Setting
Streets
White
Life Yourself Your
Rules
Maintain
Paved
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It's a rough and tumble game whenever power is involved - people's ambitions, their desires, their competitive spirit will often push them to play outside the rules. It's dramatic, it's interesting, and I think it's something we can all identify with to a degree.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Ambition
Dramatic
Games
Rough
Thinking
Competitive
Degree
Desires
Identify
Push
Tumble
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I was always a writer - working on campaigns was never a profession for me. It was something I did on the side, really, so the trajectory hasn't been a political operative who likes to dabble in writing and finds himself into stumbling on film and TV - that was always my goal.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Campaigns
Likes
Profession
Stumbling
Trajectory
Always Political Me
Dabble
Film And Tv
Political Me Always
Finds
Operative
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When you're lucky enough to get paid a nice chunk of change to write a movie or a TV show, you have no right to complain, really. I guess it's more of an appeal to the powers that be that the less they interfere, the more likely, actually, they are to get something that works, I think.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Interfere
Appeal
Chunk
Likely
Powers
Tv Show
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I refuse to buy a PS3 or Xbox for my home for fear that it might ruin my life. I think I would cease to accomplish anything productive, would quickly dispense with all human contact, and would very well end up with a nasty case of arthritis in my over-used digits from constant gameplay.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Xbox
Home
Accomplish
Arthritis
Cease
Constant
Might
Nasty
Thinking
Dispense
Ruin
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There were many years when I was hand-to-mouth and didn't know how I was gonna make rent. I've done every job under the sun, from busing tables, temping, and working in factories to SAT prep and detailing cars. So to be able to make a living where all I do is write is absolutely liberating.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Factories
Liberating
Sat
Sun
Tables
Detailing
Prep
Rent
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Every director is different. One of the great things about getting to work with so many directors in one TV series is collaborating with different artistic visions and voices. And they all have something to offer and making the story better and bringing their vision to what you see in the frame.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Directors
Vision
Voice
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You always want to try, in everything you do, to attempt something you've never tried before, and the only way to succeed at that is through failure, and the only way to succeed through failure is just banging your head against the wall over and over until you get to that interesting thing on the other side.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Banging
Succeed
Wall
Attempt
Interesting Thing
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The press don't wake up in the morning simply to be a mouthpiece for pols - they're out to uncover and expose news. That often is at odds with what politicians are setting out to do - it's both symbiotic and antagonistic. They need each other, they work in concert with one another, they work against one another.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Mouthpiece
News
Odds
Setting
Wake Up
Antagonistic
Concert
Simply
Politicians
Work Morning Wake Up
Expose
Press
Symbiotic
Uncover
Wake
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Writing plays supplied for me everything that painting didn't, which is the ability to tell stories in real time, in a real space, in three dimensions, in flesh and blood. I realized I had been trying to cram all this narrative into my paintings, but ultimately painting was a static medium. So it just opened up this whole new door.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Blood
Dimensions
Flesh
Narrative
Static
Time Space Me
Cram
Door
Space Time Me
Medium
Opened
Plays
Real Time
Supplied
Ultimately
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Like any young person who gets into a political campaign, I joined out of a highfalutin' desire to change the world. But you start to see the sort of tactics people use. You start to see politics not only in the macro but in the micro of the campaign itself. Some people get turned off by this side of it. Other people are drawn to it.
Beau Willimon / Playwright
Desire
Political
Political Campaign
Tactics
Change Politics Political
Change Politics World
Side
Campaign
Change The World
Drawn
Sort
Gets
Joined
Micro
Some People
Turned
Young Person
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Beau Willimon Quotes - Page 1

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