You have to have hope. It's irresponsible to give false hope, which I think a lot of playwrights are guilty of. But I also think it's irresponsible to simply be a nihilist, which quite a lot of playwrights, especially playwrights younger than me, have become guilty of.

I'm not an experimental artist. I have no talent for that. I need a certain kind of antecedent form to follow.

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

I'm not religious, but I like God and he likes me.

The computer, the noise of the computer feels like impatience. It's sort of the sound of impatience to me.

The general consensus among historians, among the ones who can handle the fact that 'Lincoln' is, in fact, historical fiction, is that we demonstrate enormous fidelity to history and that, beyond that, we've actually contributed a line of thinking about Lincoln's presidency that's somewhat original.

Unions are susceptible to the same ills that befall all human societies.