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Top 25 Paddy Chayefsky Quotes (2025 Update)

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “Stop thinking about writing as art. Think of it as work. If you’re an artist, whatever you do is going to be art. If you’re not an artist, at least you can do a good day’s work.”

1. “Stop thinking about writing as art. Think of it as work. If you’re an artist, whatever you do is going to be art. If you’re not an artist, at least you can do a good day’s work.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “I’m a human being, god-dammit. My life has value!”

2. “I’m a human being, god-dammit. My life has value!”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “Television is the menace that everyone loves to hate but can’t seem to live without.”

3. “Television is the menace that everyone loves to hate but can’t seem to live without.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “Television is not the truth. Television is a goddamned amusement park.”

4. “Television is not the truth. Television is a goddamned amusement park.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “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.”

5. “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.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “Television is god-damned amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers and football players. We’re in the boredom killing business.”

6. “Television is god-damned amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers and football players. We’re in the boredom killing business.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “I don’t know what’s good, or bad, or true. I let God worry about truth. I just want to know the momentary fact of things. Life isn’t good, or bad, or true. It’s merely factual. It’s sensual. It’s alive!”

7. “I don’t know what’s good, or bad, or true. I let God worry about truth. I just want to know the momentary fact of things. Life isn’t good, or bad, or true. It’s merely factual. It’s sensual. It’s alive!”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “God save us from people who do the morally right thing. It’s always the rest of us who get broken in half.”

8. “God save us from people who do the morally right thing. It’s always the rest of us who get broken in half.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “You don’t send a man to his death because you want a hero.”

9. “You don’t send a man to his death because you want a hero.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “Don’t think of it as art, think of it as work.”

10. “Don’t think of it as art, think of it as work.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “Ma, sooner or later there comes a point in a man’s life when he’s gotta face some facts. And one fact I’ve got to face is whateverit is women like, I ain’t got it.”

11. “Ma, sooner or later there comes a point in a man’s life when he’s gotta face some facts. And one fact I’ve got to face is whateverit is women like, I ain’t got it.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “The first dead man on Omaha Beach must be a sailor!”

12. “The first dead man on Omaha Beach must be a sailor!”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “The best thing that can happen is for the theme to be nice and clear from the beginning.”

13. “The best thing that can happen is for the theme to be nice and clear from the beginning.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “This was the story of Howard Beale: The first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings.”

14. “This was the story of Howard Beale: The first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “Howard Beale is processed, instant God, and right now it looks like he might just go over bigger than Mary Tyler Moore.”

15. “Howard Beale is processed, instant God, and right now it looks like he might just go over bigger than Mary Tyler Moore.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “I’m not a great writer. I’m a great rewriter.”

16. “I’m not a great writer. I’m a great rewriter.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “Americans don’t want drama, especially good drama, they just want their boredom killed.”

17. “Americans don’t want drama, especially good drama, they just want their boredom killed.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “I’m afraid to look in the mirror. I’m afraid I’m going to see an old lady with white hair, just like the old ladies in the park. Alittle bundle in a black shawl just waiting for the coffin.”

18. “I’m afraid to look in the mirror. I’m afraid I’m going to see an old lady with white hair, just like the old ladies in the park. Alittle bundle in a black shawl just waiting for the coffin.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “Television is democracy at its ugliest.”

19. “Television is democracy at its ugliest.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “All my brothers, my brothers-in-law, they’re always telling me what a good-hearted guy I am. You don’t get to be good-hearted by accident. You get kicked around long enough, you get to be a real professor of pain.”

20. “All my brothers, my brothers-in-law, they’re always telling me what a good-hearted guy I am. You don’t get to be good-hearted by accident. You get kicked around long enough, you get to be a real professor of pain.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “I would like at this moment to announce that I will be retiring from this program in two weeks’ time because of poor ratings. Since this show is the only thing I had going for me in my life, I’ve decided to kill myself. I’m going to blow my brains out right on this program a week from today. So tune in next Tuesday. That should give the public relations people a week to promote the show. You ought to get a hell of a rating out of that. 50 share, easy.”

21. “I would like at this moment to announce that I will be retiring from this program in two weeks’ time because of poor ratings. Since this show is the only thing I had going for me in my life, I’ve decided to kill myself. I’m going to blow my brains out right on this program a week from today. So tune in next Tuesday. That should give the public relations people a week to promote the show. You ought to get a hell of a rating out of that. 50 share, easy.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “The worst kind of censorship is the kind that takes place in your own mind before you sit down to a typewriter.”

22. “The worst kind of censorship is the kind that takes place in your own mind before you sit down to a typewriter.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “I’m not sentimental about war. I see nothing noble in widows.”

23. “I’m not sentimental about war. I see nothing noble in widows.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “You’re not such a dog as you think you are.”

24. “You’re not such a dog as you think you are.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “Oh, there are no living poets, Miss Van Damn. We’re not entirely sure there ever were. They’ve found some shreds of sonnets in England and, embedded in a chalk wall of a cave in France, some yet undetermined thing which might be the legendary inward eye. But all evidence, such as it is, suggests that, if there ever were poets, they were all burned into extinction during the interglacial period of despair.”

25. “Oh, there are no living poets, Miss Van Damn. We’re not entirely sure there ever were. They’ve found some shreds of sonnets in England and, embedded in a chalk wall of a cave in France, some yet undetermined thing which might be the legendary inward eye. But all evidence, such as it is, suggests that, if there ever were poets, they were all burned into extinction during the interglacial period of despair.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “You British plundered half the world for your own profit. Let’s not pass it off as the Age of Enlightenment.”

26. “You British plundered half the world for your own profit. Let’s not pass it off as the Age of Enlightenment.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “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.”

27. “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.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “We are a gutted generation, born in the depression and obsessed with prosperity.”

28. “We are a gutted generation, born in the depression and obsessed with prosperity.”

— Paddy Chayefsky

Paddy Chayefsky Quote: “What are you doing tonight?” “I don’t know, what are you doing?” Burlesque! Loew’s Paradise! Miserable and lonely! Miserable and lonely and stupid! What am I, crazy or something?! I got something good! What am I hanging around with you guys for?!”

29. “What are you doing tonight?” “I don’t know, what are you doing?” Burlesque! Loew’s Paradise! Miserable and lonely! Miserable and lonely and stupid! What am I, crazy or something?! I got something good! What am I hanging around with you guys for?!”

— Paddy Chayefsky

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