True and False -- David Mamet

I realized that I preferred David Mamet's style of theatre to Stanislavski's just by reading the introductions of this book. One of my favorite quotes from it is, "That is what acting is. Doing the play for the audience. The rest is just practice." Mamet's technique is so much more simple than Stanislavski's. Mamet was able to put his technique into one tiny book, whereas Stanislavski needed 3 books, each twice the size of Mamet's, in order to dive deep enough into his Method.
Mamet does not believe that the idea of a character exists. There is no such thing as a character, just words on a page written by an author. The actor's job does not go beyond simply creating an illusion of a character for the audience to watch on stage. Mamet goes on in the first chapter to say that, "We cannot control our thoughts, nor can we control our emtoions. But perhaps 'control of emotions' has a case-specific meaning upon the stage. Indeed it does. It means 'pretending'." This man is suburb! Every other paragraph in this book has me nodding along in belief.
I can connect with this book so much more than I ever could with An Actor Prepares by Stanislavski. I will definitely be using this book for future reference. This is one of the truest and most honest things I have ever read.