The pain of losing is diverting. So is the thrill of winning. Winning, however, is lonelier, as those you've won money from are not likely to commiserate with you. Winning takes getting used to.

When we leave the play saying how spectacular the sets or costumes were, or how interesting the ideas, it means we had a bad time.

We Americans have always considered Hollywood, at best, a sinkhole of depraved venality. And, of course, it is. It is not a protective monastery of aesthetic truth. It is a place where everything is incredibly expensive.

The main question in drama, the way I was taught, is always, 'What does the protagonist want?' That's what drama is. It comes down to that. It's not about theme, it's not about ideas, it's not about setting, but what the protagonist wants.

Before you can steal fire from the Gods you gotta be able to get coffee for the director.

I hate vacations. There's nothing to do.

It is the objective of the protagonist that keeps us in our seats.