I don't know what it says about me that I have a greater affinity with the damaged. Probably nothing good.

Thank God we can't tell the future. We'd never get out of bed.

You know, people see [August: Osage County], and I tell them that it's based on my family, and they assume that I came from some kind of horrible, hysterical circumstances. That's not true. My family, my nuclear family, was actually very close. My mom and dad were great parents and they encouraged a real rich, creative life for me and my brothers. My extended family, like every family, has some darkness, and some violence of some kind, emotional or otherwise, in their past.

I'm kind of perverse in that I think pessimism is helpful. My pessimism is my own kind of patriotism. My dissent.

I never know what the hell I'm writing about, I never know what the next thing I'm writing about is, I never have a plan.

I don't think I'd give advice. That never pays off. That's always a bad idea. If they follow your advice and it doesn't work out, or if they don't follow your advice, somehow you're on the hook for it.

If you feel like you're in control of everything, and then things aren't going well, you feel like you're failing.