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

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

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

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.

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 want to write stories that don't help you escape life, but embrace life.