There are two strains, I think, in American playwriting, of importance. One is traditional narrative realism, which is definitely my strain, and then the other great contribution is American musical theater, which is a whole other kettle of fish.

People shouldn't trust artists and they shouldn't trust art. Part of the fun of art is that it invites you to interpret it.

When I teach writing, I always tell my students you should assume that the audience you're writing for is smarter than you. You can't write if you don't think they're on your side, because then you start to yell at them or preach down to them.

The dreams of the left are always beautiful - the imagining of a better world, the damnation of the present one. This faith, this luminescent anger - these are worthy of being called human. These are the Beautiful that an age produces.

In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind, and dreaming ahead.

One has to have a complicated kind of optimism. You can't refuse to look at how horrible things are.

In some ways [the Internet]'s definitely an enemy.