A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.

Oh, by the way, I tend to use a lot of profanities. I do that for a reason: I like it.

The Business story is designed to trigger the listener to take an effective action. If it doesn't, the story fails.

Night after night, through years of performing and directing, I've stood in awe of the audience, of its capacity for response. As if by magic, masks fall away, faces become vulnerable, receptive. Filmgoers do not defend their emotions, rather they open to the storyteller in ways even their lovers never know, welcoming laughter, tears, terror, rage, compassion, passion, love, hate--the ritual often exhausts them.

Boredom is the inner conflict we suffer when we lose desire, when we lack a lacking.

Secure writers don't sell first drafts. They patiently rewrite until the script is as director-ready, as actor-ready as possible. Unfinished work invites tampering, while polished, mature work seals its integrity.

The material of literary talent is words; the material of story talent is life itself.