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

Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists and bullet points.

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.

Deus ex machina not only erases all meaning and emotion, it's an insult to the audience. Each of us knows we must choose and act, for better or worse, to determine the meaning of our lives...Deus ex machina is an insult because it is a lie.

It seems to me that the civilized human being is a skeptic someone who believes nothing at face value.

Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.

What happens is fact, not truth. Truth is what we think about what happens.