['John F. Kennedy] movie is based on a massive best-selling book, which is always helpful. And then the script was amazing and answered my question, "Why this? Why now?" And the "why now" is that it's 50 years since the assassination, and the country needs to have and will have a conversation about that. And the "why this" is the construct, which I think is sort of ingenious.

[The Outsiders] was very competitive, in the best possible way. Full of love, full of companionship and fellowship, pranks and practical jokes and ball-busting.

Actually, if I had to do it over [leaving the show the West Wing], I'd do the same thing, because lost in the shuffle of it is that Aaron [Sorkin] left the same year I did. And I would not have wanted to be on The West Wing with somebody else writing it.

Nothing in life is unfair. It's just life. To the extent that I had any inner turmoil, I had only myself to blame. I also thought of my two boys and what kind of example I hoped to be. I would always want them to take charge of their own futures and not be paralyzed by the comfort and certainty of the status quo or be cowed by the judgment of those on the outside looking in.

We knew we were doing something that would make an impact, because of Francis [Ford Coppola], but I don't think we were surprised by how well the movie [The Outsiders] did, but I think we would all say we were surprised at how well we all did coming out of it.

Anything that is stifled will eventually ferment or explode.

At the time, The Hotel New Hampshire was John Irving's favorite adaptation of his work, which meant a lot to all of us who worked on that movie.It's amazing to me that that was a studio movie. That was a summer studio release! If that doesn't tell you how much the business has changed, nothing will.