It has always seemed to me that Barack Obama has studied intensely and learned a great deal from Lincoln.

But I think what made me go into theater was seeing my mother onstage. The first thing she did was Mrs. Frank in 'The Diary of Anne Frank.' The second thing she did was a play about Freud called 'The Far Country.' She played a paralyzed woman in Vienna who goes to see Freud.

As a playwright, you are a torturer of actors and of the audience as well. You inflict things on people.

If you have value as an artist it's probably going to be in your capacity to let things inside you get past things that are placed there to keep you from telling the truth. The more you see things as clearly and coldly as you can, the more value you're going to have.

I don't understand why I'm not dead. When your heart breaks, you should die

I don't know what will happen to me without you. Only you. Only you love me. Out of everyone in the world.

Artists know that diligence counts as much, if not more, as inspiration; in art, as in politics, patience counts as much as revolution.