Some of the best lines from playwright and screenwriter David Mamet come from Glengarry Glen Ross, a successful 1984 play that became a movie in 1992. Whether it’s “Coffee’s for closers only,” or “Only one thing counts in this world: get them to sign on the line which is dotted,” Mamet’s ear for crisp, cynical and street-smart edgy dialogue is so well known that it has earned its own categorization: “Mamet speak.”

It has been said that in Mamet’s scripts that he uses heavy italics and quotation marks in order to highlight particular words so that he can point out when characters are attempting to manipulate each other. Other distinctive qualities of a Mamet script include overlapping dialogue, characters interrupting each other and trailing off sentences.

Mamet once commented that he learned his use of language from his family, and admitted they used to all “speak the language viciously.” Perhaps Mamet’s most distinctive play is Glengarry Glen Ross, which tells the story of four desperate real estate agents who have two days to sell the most poor quality real estate to buyers. The men resort to all sorts of unethical and sometimes illegal acts, and as Mamet has stated before, some of the plot is based on what he saw in the Chicago real estate business in the 1960s.

The play started in London in 1983 and eventually opened on Broadway in 1984. It only ran for approximately a year, and starred character actors Joe Mantegna, Robert Prosky, J. T. Walsh and others. The play went on to win four Tony Awards. However, the 1992 film (with a new character role created just for Alec Baldwin) wasn’t the last the world would hear of these sneaky Chicago real estate agents.

The production was revived in 2005, eventually winning a Tony Award (Best Revival of a Play) and a Drama Desk Award Outstanding Revival of a Play. To this day, you can still buy Glengarry Glen Ross tickets in your local area. Find out why David Mamet is one of America’s most iconic playwrights, and why his characters are larger than the stage!