What I've learned in the last few years is that I am merely a storyteller.

When I kicked in the first TV – a nineteen-inch Magnavox with wicker speaker panels – it felt like the most perfect thing I had done in a long time. And there's nothing like the feeling of perfection that will inspire repeated behavior.

What I've learned in the last few years is that I am merely a storyteller.

I grew up eating hamburger helper, macaroni and cheese, and drinking lots of milk, and looked at lots of cows; but I feel like a New Yorker now, I've lived here for sixteen years.

I find that more and more I'm trying to entertain myself when I'm working, because I know the work's going to go to a horrible place.

In Chekhov, when people leave, a carriage is taking them away forever. The stakes are so high just for someone to make a simple exit. And now we have all this access to public transportation, automobiles and jets and the Internet; we're so easily distracted, but the world is still designed to destroy you. It just happens quicker and faster now.

When I'm directing, I'm pretty much not writing, but when I'm not directing I am writing a lot.