“And there’s nothing like the feeling of perfection that will inspire repeated behavior.”

In Chekhov, when people leave, a carriage is taking them away forever.

Fifteen years ago I killed my sister.

Somewhere so deep inside that the doctors can’t find it with all their machines and microcameras.

It’s strange, people have asked me what my schedule is and what is my process like, and I can’t even answer it.

I think auditioning can be very reductive and I just hate how actors work really hard and most of them aren’t going to get the job, and I hate putting them through that.

I don’t like the sort of hierarchical, totalitarian type of room a lot of directors can find themselves in.

The rooms I tend to be in are pretty democratic and the best idea wins.

Ice congeals in the stomach. Frost spiderwebs in the lungs.

I think there is a complicated side effect to overcoming evil in that we are forever changed by it.

I show up on time, I am very rigorous about scheduling, and I am very focused.

What I’ve learned in the last few years is that I am merely a storyteller.

I feel that I am just a storyteller, and whether I am wearing the director hat or the playwright hat, it doesn’t matter.

I try not to write more than two or three, I try to just write one if possible

I think after we ingest some of the cruelty of the world, it takes years off of our lives, but it also gives us wisdom and a little grace, hopefully a sense of compassion.

Sometimes when I’m directing, the stage manager will have a good idea and that’s okay with me.

The same way you can hear a song in your head even if there isn’t a radio playing; the same way you can hear those blackbirds flying when they’re not in the sky

Awake, awake, my Lyre!And tell thy silent master’s humble taleIn sounds that may prevail;Sounds that gentle thoughts inspire

The ecstatic beauty and soulful grace of Rumi’s poetry inspires human hearts to believe in possibilities beyond the predictably fatal.

I’m playing the game because I love it. But I’m also playing it for my family. You play for the glory, but you play for your family, too.

Sometimes miracles occur only when you jump in.

The buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching toward infinity.

Patriotism, in the trenches, was too remote a sentiment, and at once rejected as fit only for civilians, or prisoners. A new arrival who talked patriotism would soon be told to cut it out.

Indeed, what is there that does not appear marvelous when it comes to our knowledge for the first time? How many things, too, are looked up on as quite impossible until they have been actually effected?

Patriotism, in the trenches, was too remote a sentiment, and at once rejected as fit only for civilians, or prisoners. A new arrival who talked patriotism would soon be told to cut it out.