I wanted to do a political film that is as nonpartisan as can be, because I wanted to do a story that was American. I wanted to tell an American tragedy.

Usually the characters are where I start. Then I continually ask myself, 'What's the worst thing that could happen to this character?'

There's something that's so basically corrupt about any system in which a good and fair profit is not enough. There has to be more, every year, every quarter, because your stock price has to rise.

I like to write about things about which I have no answers, questions that trouble me. These things trouble me.

United States could be a great country. It needs to be a great country. It's our responsibility as citizens to make that happen, every single one of us.

A creative person has to believe in the unseen and the untouched.

What I love about writing is the contradictions we all embody as human beings.