Even my wife and two of my children are in "Leaves of Grass". Because I love the source material so much, it was really easy to write and an utter delight to get to direct because I had people like Edward [Norton] elevating the material and surprising me in their interpretations of all of this stuff that's so close to me.

Practiced poorly, tourism can be extremely negative.

The more you do your homework, the more you're free to be intuitive. But you've got to put the work in.

I've always liked the idea of taking old dramatic ideas and devices and making them feel relevant or contemporary or whatever.

Popularity is the slutty little cousin of prestige, my friend.

Screenplays aren't written to be read, they're written to be made into movies.

When I think of my background, if I was privileged on any level, it was in terms of the kind of exposure to experience and bohe-mian cultural influence that my parents and my uncles and my grandfather gave me. On both sides I come from an extremely eccentric, artsy, intellectually intense, activist family.