My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign.

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

The audience requires not information but drama.

In a restaurant one is both observed and unobserved. Joy and sorrow can be displayed and observed "unwittingly," the writer scowling naively and the diners wondering, What the hell is he doing?

If the scene bores you when you read it, rest assured it WILL bore the actors, and will then bore the audience, and we're all going to be back in the breadline.

Every scene should be able to answer three questions: "Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now?"

When I started out I was a failed actor.