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.

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.

I've always written for actors, and if you want to write for good actors, you have to write parts that are surprising, that are human, and that allow them to go to a wide range of places.

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.

I don't want to write my life. I live my life. I want to make up a new world.

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

The better the script, the less money there is. That's just the economics of the studio system.