Part of that is that New York has proved to be too much fun for me to live and work; I love New York so much.

But here's the thing: what you do as a screenwriter is you sell your copyright. As a novelist, as a poet, as a playwright, you maintain your copyright.

The next thing I wrote was in a writing class at night school. It was about a poor woman who worked at a dime store and who was all alone for Christmas in Laurel, Mississippi.

Somehow I got to be one of five or six actors that the directors would use as guinea pigs at this directing colloquium, where people pay to listen to and watch the directors direct.

It's really interesting that whenever you do something that is so out of character, like having an emotional outburst, that you don't get in trouble.

My first few plays took place in the South and even The Lucky Spot was in the thirties but in Louisiana.

In movement class, you had to lie on the floor and get your alignment in to pass the class.

That's what I like about [smoking] . . . taking a drag off of death, Mmm! Gives me a sense of controlling my own destiny. What power! What exhilaration! Want a drag?

It was kind of enlightening to become a playwright.

What I loved about the acting class was that you got to think all day long about a person that wasn't you, and figure out why they were sad and what they wanted, what they dreamed.

I find it fascinating to think about what the world is going to be like when people won't talk anymore.

I gave up what I can't keep for something I can never lose.

Friendships that don't fit my life anymore have faded away, and new ones have come in.

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns when they all did tricks for you.

Without the a test you don't have a testimony.

I don't think evil is sexy! I don't think being cruel and mean and hurting other people is sexy! ... Although I have been quite attracted to some very bad boys!

You will know you're old when you cease to be amazed.

Humility is an ornament which attracts Krishna's heart. Beginning of all knowledge comes from humility.

My day is pretty much busy. I do 15 million things in the course of a day. I'm holding up I think. I don't know how I look, but I think I'm holding up.

The best vaccine imaginable is only valuable to the extent we get it to everyone who needs it.

We're not savages. We're English.