I'm a very boring person.

I write scenes - often quite long scenes - mainly because I still get seduced into writing six lines where one and a half will do.

Audiences know what to expect, and that is all that they are prepared to believe in.

The ordinary-sized stuff which is our lives, the things people write poetry about—clouds—daffodils—waterfalls—what happens in a cup of coffee when the cream goes in—these things are full of mystery, as mysterious to us as the heavens were to the Greeks.

From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.

Sometimes directors feel a script needs something, but they're not sure what it is, so they show it to a friend; if the friend is a writer, he ends up kicking around with that script for a while.

Act first! The ideas will follow, and if not - well, it's progress