The next thing I wrote was in a writing class at night school. It was about a poor woman who worked at a dime store and who was all alone for Christmas in Laurel, Mississippi.

My first few plays took place in the South and even The Lucky Spot was in the thirties but in Louisiana.

The most glorious thing about working in the collaborative art is when you have somebody like Susan Kingsley or Kathy Bates who are better than your play.

But here's the thing: what you do as a screenwriter is you sell your copyright. As a novelist, as a poet, as a playwright, you maintain your copyright.

Some really good things kind of swing both ways and I like to see people that can swing really, really, really sad and horrible and terrible and really, really, really beautiful and funny.

I tried to start a theatre in LA and failed miserably, but I was probably not meant to raise money.

It's really interesting that whenever you do something that is so out of character, like having an emotional outburst, that you don't get in trouble.