Mank (2020) quotes

Cast
Gary Oldman.
Amanda Seyfried.
Lily Collins.

1930’s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of En sensation (1941).

You cannot capture a man’s entire life in two hours. All you can hope is to leave the impression of one.
– Herman Mankiewicz

Nobody but NOBODY makes a monkey outta William Randolph Hearst!
– Marion Davies

This is a business where the buyer gets nothing for his money but a memory. What he bought still belongs to the man who sold it. That’s the real magic of the movies. And don’t let anybody tell you different.
– Louis B. Mayer

If I ever go to the electric chair, I’d like him to be sitting in my lap.
– Herman Mankiewicz

That, my friend, is the magic of the movies.
– Herman Mankiewicz

Irving, you are a literate man. You know the difference between communism and socialism. In socialism, everyone shares the wealth. In communism, everyone shares the poverty.
– Herman Mankiewicz

People think MGM stands for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It does not. It stands for Mayer’s gantze mishpokhe, Mayer’s whole family. Never forget that. You got a problem, come to papa.
– Louis B. Mayer

I’m toiling with you in spirit.
– Orson Welles

Mank? It’s Orson Welles.
– Orson Welles
[etherized] Of course it is.
– Herman Mankiewicz
I think it’s time we talked.
– Orson Welles
I’m all ears.
– Herman Mankiewicz

As Pascal once said, “If only I’d had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”
– Herman Mankiewicz