About the Book:

Three Uses of the Knife is recommended by the Writers Guild Initiative!

What makes good drama? And why does drama matter in an age that is awash in information and entertainment? In Three Uses of the Knife the acclaimed and award-winning playwright celebrates the absolute necessity of drama – and the experience of great plays – in our lurching attempts to make sense of ourselves and our world.

David Mamet may be best known for his critically acclaimed theatre work like American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-the-Plow, and Oleanna, but the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer has a far reach across all mediums – theatre, film, books, and television. In addition to his Oscar-nominated career screenwriting many well-known films (The Untouchables, Wag the Dog, and Hannibal among others), he has written for several TV shows and created and co-executive produced all four seasons of The Unit on CBS. To David Mamet, famous for his naturalistic yet strangely stylized dialogue, human beings are drama-creating animals who impose narrative structures on everything from today's weather to next year's elections. Mamet distinguishes true drama from its false variants, unravels the infamous "Second-Act Problem," and considers the mysterious persistence of the soliloquy. Three Uses of the Knife is an inspired guide for any playwright or theatergoer that doubles as a trenchant work of moral and aesthetic philosophy.

What people say:

"Mamet's writing is tight, spare, and as accurate and ruthless as a scalpel." — Sunday Times

"Mamet's Three Uses of the Knife, a free-flowing yet remarkably cohesive meditation, epitomizes the author's economical use of language as well as his admirable range and depth of thought. ...Mamet has taken the high-road baton from his predecessor as serious theater's conscience, Edward Albee, and run well with it." — Baltimore Sun

"Self-assured and filled with autobiographical touches ... If you don't know his work, you have a surprise treat in store. I cannot commend highly enough this analysis of the cancers that he sees beleaguering the work of so many dramatists." — Amateur Stage

"A stimulating contribution to an important debate ... An invigorating read — as stimulating as it is entertaining ... His arguments are intriguing and enlightening .... Mamet's contribution... is significant." — Reviews Gate

About the Author:

David Mamet is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter as well as a director, novelist, poet, and essayist. His more than twenty plays include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Glengarry Glen Ross. He has written the screenplays for more than twenty films, including the Oscar-nominated The Verdict. Born in Chicago in 1947, Mamet has taught at the Yale School of Drama, New York University, and Goddard College, and he lectures at the Atlantic Theater Company, of which he is a founding member. He lives in Santa Monica, California.