What in the world is a leave of presence? It means I am not going away.

When I write, I fall into the zone many writers, painters, musicians, athletes, and craftsmen of all sorts seem to share: In doing something I enjoy and am expert at, deliberate thought falls aside and it is all just THERE. I think of the next word no more than the composer thinks of the next note.

Marlon Brando is the most influential movie actor of the century.

Movies absorb our attention more completely, I think.

Class is often invisible in America in the movies, and usually not the subject of the film.

Not everyone needs to be slammed into a category and locked there.

It is quite possible for the vulgar to be funny, but to succeed, it must rise to a certain genius.