There is a profound and ineradicable taint of antisemitism in the British.

There's nothing in the world more silent than the telephone the morning after everybody pans your play. It won't ring from room service; your mother won't be calling you. If the phone has not rung by 8 in the morning, you're dead.

Almost all movie scripts contain material that cannot be filmed.

You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?'

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

Always tell the truth - it's the easiest thing to remember.

Anyone can write five people trapped in a snowstorm. The question is how you get them into the snowstorm. It's hard to write a good play because it's hard to structure a plot. If you can think of it off the top of your head, so can the audience. To think of a plot that is, as Aristotle says, surprising and yet inevitable, is a lot, lot, lot of work.