I go through phases where I'll overuse words. S.E. Hinton, who wrote The Outsiders - she and I have been in contact for the 50th anniversary of the book - and she said, "You still owe me the 10 dollars that we bet that you couldn't stop saying the word 'gnarly.'"

In school, I had two or three best guy friends, but mostly if I was just hanging, I'd like to talk to the girls, because they were more interesting. I think they were smarter.

When I'm angry I'm an incredibly tough person, because I don't get angry easily.

They (teenage boys)don’t really listen to speeches or talks. They absorb incrementally, through hours and hours of observation.

[On "John F. Kennedy" set] everybody was very interested in the accent. Even my collaborators were very curious to know if I was even going to do it. And I was, like, "You just can't not do it." I think everybody was worried that it was going to sound like the guy from... is it The Simpsons?

We had shot six episodes of the West Wing season when 9/11 happened. An extraordinary thing that would never happen today is Aaron going to the network and saying, "I think we need to go back and reshoot, I have something I want to do," and the network just kind of let him do it.

I enjoy experiencing life. Being a celebrity can really stand in the way of that.