I feel like there's a certain kind of laughter missing in the world.

The bigger the budget, the less an audience is trusted, and that's the difference between a big-budget film and a small-budget film.

I've wanted to direct for a long time, but it had to be a story I wanted to tell. The writer's job is to find the story that he should tell.

I spent so many years trying to become an actor, trying to be a person that I wasn't.

I learned early on that there are all sorts of stories I have no place telling.

I can't stop terrorism; I can't cure cancer. But I can put some stories out there in their own quiet way that talk about tolerance.

My job as a dramatist is to find out where these characters want to go, and make it as hard as possible for them to get there.