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.

Anyone ever lost in the wild knows that nature wants you dead.

What I value most in my friends is loyalty.

My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library.

It's hard for a Jew of my generation, an American Jew, who is philo-Zionistic, not to romanticize Israel.

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.

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