“Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?”

Source: Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business

Last update Feb. 25, 2025. History

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David Mamet28

American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film direc… 1947

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“I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next.”

Eric Schmidt (1955) software engineer, businessman

The Wall Street Journal (August 14, 2010) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704901104575423294099527212.html.

“What happens when bosses ignore memos from subordinates? The country is now learning the answer to that question in a most painful way.”

Richard Behar American journalist

On July 10, 2001, an FBI agent in Phoenix [Arizona] wrote a memo raising serious concerns about Middle Eastern men attending U. S. flight schools. The memo never made its way up the chain of command, and no action was taken. ––Richard Behar, introd. to "FBI's 'Phoenix' memo Unmasked", Fortune [date? ], [date accessed? ]. (See (incomplete) list of Behar's Fortune articles in his section of his Publications http://www.richardbehar.com/articles/fortune/fortune_all.html [some defunct links].)

“I think of how and why and what happened and the thoughts come easily, but the answers don't.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

“Why don't I kill myself? If I knew exactly what keeps me from doing so, I should have no more questions to ask myself since I should have answered them all.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

The New Gods (1969)

“We can each sit and wait to die, from the very day of our births. Those of us who do not do so, choose to ask--and to answer--the two questions that define every conscious creature: What do I want? and What will I do to get it? Which are, finally, only one question: What is my will? Caine teaches us that the answer is always found within our own experience; our lives provide the structure of the question, and a properly phrased question contains its own answer.”

Matthew Stover book Blade of Tyshalle

(XIV.3) Del Rey, p. 472
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)

“We should ask three basic questions of any system we encounter. The first question is, “If I am perfect at this practice, what can I expect to achieve?” Once you have heard the answer to this question, you may decide that you do not care to proceed any further, or you may find that the goal is exactly what you have always wanted. The second question is, “What are the means for attaining the goal?” The answer to this question enables you to decide whether you are willing to pay the price to get there. The third question to ask is, “Who has already reached the goal and how do they live their lives?” We should carefully scrutinize those who have supposedly reached the goal to discover their true situation in life. If we feel aligned with the answers to all three questions, then we can “go for it.””

Bhakti Tirtha Swami (1950–2005) American Hindu writer

If we do not, then we should look somewhere else.
Source: Books, Spiritual Warrior, Volume III: Solace for the Heart in Difficult Times (Hari-Nama Press, 2000), Chapter 8 - How To Strengthen Ourselves

“A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That's why they don't get what they want.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

From Sex book
Variant: A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That's why they don't get what they want.

“And so, what we've done all of these years is very simple, is use the little tool, which is ask three whys in a row. Because the first why you always have a good answer for. The second why, it starts getting difficult. By the third why, you don't really know why you're doing what you're doing.”

Ricardo Semler (1959) Brazilian businessman

TED: "How to run a company with (almost) no rules" https://www.ted.com/talks/ricardo_semler_how_to_run_a_company_with_almost_no_rules/ (October 2014)

“The person recounting here and now what he saw and what happened to him then is not the same person who saw those things and to whom those things happened.”

Javier Marías (1951) Spanish writer

El que aquí cuenta lo que vio y le ocurrió no es aquel que lo vio y al que le ocurrió.
Source: Todas las Almas [All Souls] (1989), p. 3

“Why do predictions of the Death of the West not belong on the same shelf as the predictions of 'nuclear winter' and 'global warming'? Answer: the Death of the West is not a prediction of what is going to happen, it is a depiction of what is happening now.”

Patrick Buchanan (1938) American politician and commentator

2000s, The Death of the West (2002)

“Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?”

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