Here's what happens in a play. You get involved in a situation where something is unbalanced. If nothing's unbalanced, there's no reason to have a play. If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad's not dead and asks him if he's had a good time, it's boring. But if something's unbalanced, it must be returned to order.

Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only.

A play is basically a long, formalistic polemic. You can write it without the poetry, and if you do, you may have a pretty good play. We know this because we see plays in translation. Not many people speak Norwegian or Danish or whatever guys like Ibsen spoke, or Russian - yet we understand Chekhov and the others.

Get into the scene late; get out of the scene early.

Film is a collaborative business: bend over.

I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind.

It’s not a lie. It’s a gift for fiction.