When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.

I grew up in a tough neighborhood and we used to say you can get further with a kind word and a gun than just a kind word.

The job of the artist, is to say, wait a second, everything that we have thought is wrong. Let's re-examine it.

War is tragedy. The great war stories are tragedies. It's the failure of diplomacy. 'War and Peace,' 'A Farewell to Arms,' 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' Those are some of the greatest tragedies.

Fun is what you do for yourself. If somebody else does it, it's entertainment.

My dad was an immigrant kid and a Democrat and a Jew, and we didn't know any Republicans in our group. So I grew up Democratic. My dad was a labor lawyer - a very hardworking guy, a one-horse labor lawyer - and then I went to hippie college and lived in the bubble.

It is the writer’s job to make the play interesting. It is the actor’s job to make the performance truthful.