I go into any movie that's historical fiction thinking, 'OK, I'm here to watch a work of art, something delivering a series of opinions, and if it's a good work of art, these opinions become so deeply embedded in complexity and richness that I won't even be bothered by the opinions. I'll make my own mind up.'

As much as I hate his movies, Oliver Stone has an aspiration I admire, and that is that he wants his art to be part of what makes and changes public policy and cultural practice.

The fear of a work becoming dated is one of the most effective tools for keeping people from writing political work.

When I'm writing a new play, there's a period where I know I shouldn't be out in public much. I imagine most people who create go through something like this. You willfully loosen some of the inner straps that hold your core together.

You don't go to the movies to do historical research, unless it's historical research about the movies.

The work of artists is to find what's humanly possible - possibility's furthest reaches.

Theater really gets damaged when there is a paucity of good criticism around.