When you've got good actors, they're going to come up with good stuff, but you're never quite sure how the dynamics are going to work between them.

If you've got time to waste, you might as well waste it listening to people.

I suppose I walk that line between comedy and cruelty because I think one illuminates the other. We're all cruel, aren't we? We are all extreme in one way or another at times and that's what drama, since the Greeks, has dealt with. I hope the overall view isn't just that though, or I've failed in my writing. There have to be moments when you glimpse something decent, something life-affirming even in the most twisted character. That's where the real art lies.

My plays are always pushing towards cinema anyway. They're down and dirty, real and more fun.

I never feel like a smug or a smart-alec film director, and there are plenty of those around.

I think as a writer you never have to flee from fame because you're not that visible in the first place, but, after the Broadway success of 'Beauty Queen,' people were coming up to me all the time, and I wasn't really prepared for that level of attention.

It doesn't feel like you're preaching, if you can say something in a joke.