I find the constraints of drama actually freeing: It brings everything down to character and action.

I was raised by television. It was my first cultural window. It was a constant companion.

I didn't come to Hollywood to be subservient to anyone else's vision.

At DePauw, I was teaching writing and fiction. The things I wanted to teach, more than anything else, were form and theory of the novel, of narrative. I liked those classes.

I find the constraints of drama actually freeing: It brings everything down to character and action.

I read The Conspiracy Against the Human Race and found it incredibly powerful writing. For me as a reader, it was less impactful as philosophy than as one writers ultimate confessional: an absolute horror story, where the self is the monster.

The Atlantic really gave me my writing career - even just the conviction to be a writer.