What I hate about kitchen-sink dramas is [this idea] that the set is real, therefore you're going to be seeing truth. You have to earn truth. Truth can't be a part of the fact that people appear to talk that way and live in that room. You're looking for the poetry in something, and I don't mean poetry in the fancy sense. Naturalism believes by just replicating a thing you give the truth, rather than earning the truth.

And what would be great numbers in a Broadway show are now on stage of the New York City Ballet.

I'm an American playwright. Tennessee Williams got in all our DNA.

Everyone talks about America, this great country. You hear, "I'm more patriotic than you are. No, I'm more patriotic!" But how few people know the history of this country and how we came into being. That's the part that just amazed me.

I think a playwright must be his own dramaturg.

You don't push the button that says "Now I will write something that resonates in time." You don't know. It's what happens after a play is finished.

It's amazing how a little tomorrow can make up for a whole lot of yesterday.