I was about 20 when my mom got sick with cancer and it was bad. It was very scary and at the time I was doing my first screenplay and I was on deadline and was alone with my father in Massachusetts. I said, "Pop, you know, I don't how I'm going to work. I don't know how I can get this done. You know, I got to hand this script in and I can't think about anything but Mom." He said, "Well, you know, now is the time when you're going to learn what it means to compartmentalize." And those words really had an impact on me.

I don't know if it's possible for anyone to really have that level of a voice anymore because our media is so diluted and parsed out. You know people kind of go for the news and information that they want as opposed to picking up a paper and seeing what catches their eye. It's a very stark difference and there is a few stories that end up going wide and everybody hears about them, but they're usually salacious celebrity stuff that is not about substance or it's the latest disaster and it's kind of covered in a way that is just trying to get eyeballs on the screen.

I think that Anderson Cooper does a great job of staying with stories and pushing them. New Orleans he really... He was there and he pushed it past the point where his producers were saying, "Listen, you've got to stop because people are tuning out now. You know, we're on to another disaster." You know, what do you worry about, Haiti, Chile, Turkey? What? You know where do you put your attention and your focus? So for one person to really be able to cover all that ground would be tough.

The thing is, to try to talk about a performance that will never be seen again, that was only lived by the people there, it's kind of like telling somebody about your dream. You know if they love you they'll listen and smile, but they can't really get it, so there is a certain infinite quality to film that is nice. You do the work and you know it's always going to be there. The flip side is if you do bad work it's always going to be there.

My father probably taught me everything I know, aside from dialogue, which I think I get from my mom a lot more. He certainly didn't teach me everything he knew, but you know he has got this book out called "The Spooky Art," which is essentially an advanced book on writing and it's not... You know it's not ABC, but it's for people who feel that bug and know that they're writers and are willing to put in that time alone. Pretty much the vast majority of what he taught me you can find in that book.

Really there's different scales of stories. Sometimes you want to tell one that 20, 30, 40, 50 million people will want to see and hear. Sometimes you do one that you know 150 will want to see on one night. As long as you're telling the right story for the right audience and they're getting something out of it it's essentially the same feeling to me.

I mean the price of our technology may very well end up being our humanity, so I think you got to have that balance. Personally I try to do one for one if I can. Do a movie, do a play, do a movie, do a play - while at the same time writing and being in that cycle.