But when I got to SMU and decided to take a playwriting class, I said this isn't a bad idea. IfI write characters, they could be as dumb as me, and I don't have to be very smart.

I was just restless with being in school; so I went out to Los Angeles.

Somehow I got to be one of five or six actors that the directors would use as guinea pigs at this directing colloquium, where people pay to listen to and watch the directors direct.

My fault now is making my plays too short.

I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, really in suburbia, so my mother was in community theatre plays.

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

It was kind of enlightening to become a playwright.