What I tell kids is don't get mad (about censorship) get even. Run, don't walk, to the first library you can find, and read what they're trying to keep out of your eyes. Read what they're trying to keep out of your brains. Because that's exactly what you need to know.

Poe was the first writer to write about main characters who were bad guys or who were mad guys, and those are some of my favorite stories.

Directing teenage actors is like juggling jars of nitro-glycerine: exhilarating and dangerous.

Love is what moves the world, I've always thought...it is the only thing which allows men and women to stand in a world where gravity always seems to want to pull them down...bring them low...and make them crawl.

What if there were no grownups? Suppose the whole idea of grownups was an illusion? What if their money was really just playground marbles, their business deals no more than baseball-card trades, their wars only games of guns in the park? What if they were all still snotty-nosed kids inside their suits and dresses? Christ, that couldn't be, could it? It was too horrible to think about.

Do any men grow up or do they only come of age?

As with all other aspects of fiction, the key to writing good dialogue is honesty.