That's Why It's Called Money...

Janet Maslin covers David Mamet's book "Bambi vs. Godzilla":

About one particularly bad sequel, he says: "Jewish law states that there are certain crimes that cannot be forgiven, as they cannot be undone. It lists murder and adultery. I add this film."

and

By resisting demands for arbitrary alterations in one's work, the kinds of changes that raise doubts about the work's seriousness. What would happen, he asks, to an architect who was similarly accommodating? ("Would you mind moving the staircase? Thank you. Now would you mind moving the skylight?") And by understanding the etiquette of betrayal, Hollywood style. "Should the project go awry," he writes, "you will be notified by a complete lack of contact with those in whose hands its administration has rested."

Looks good. I can't remember the exact quote, but in "Heist", written and directed by Mamet, Danny DeVito says something like, "Yeah, money. Everybody wants money. That's why it's called money." "Glengarry Glen Ross" (written by Mamet) is filled to the brim with some of the sharpest writing to be found but I've always liked the simple "Asshole" from Al Pacino -- 'hole' is over enunciated with the mouth in a perfect O shape, sort of like 'asshooooole'. (Sorry. It may be one Mamet's less literary bits of dialogue, but frankly, I really don't think anyone else could have thought of it). 'That's why it's called money...' Damn...