I don't talk a lot when I interview. My job is to get out of the way.

Suddenly in high school, I'm in a predominantly Jewish atmosphere. Jewish people were my gate to white America.

Artists are the people that no matter what, pick up the pen, pick up a paintbrush. They take the time to translate what is happening to create something that resonates deeply with the rest of the people that are caught in the middle of their own reality.

We spend so much time bantering about the words when the real open conversations might very well be our actions. I worry about our rhetoric.

Some people study a text very deeply. The people are my text. I study their words and what their words sound like, over and over again. When I was a kid, my grandfather said that "if you say a word often enough, it becomes you." Thinking of that later in life gave me this idea that I could try to become America by learning the words of people from many aspects of the country. It doesn't matter how educated they are. By living in the world and living their experiences, they bring extraordinary truths. I try to do those truths justice.

My main concern is theater, and theater does not reflect or mirror society. It has been stingy and selfish, and it has to do better.

People in power have to be careful about what comes out of their mouth. They have to find exactly the right word that can't be attacked.