GOOD AS NEW was born out of the idea of writing a play where the stakes were high and the collisions were of a verbal nature. Also I wanted to write a play where people were smarter than I was, and more alive than I feel normally. I became interested in the idea of characters who would surprise me. I guess one could argue that nothing comes out of you that wasn't within you to begin with, but maybe there are ways to trick yourself into becoming more an observer or an advocate for the characters.

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

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

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'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.

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.

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.