“Grief does not expire like a candle or the beacon on a lighthouse. It simply changes temperature. It becomes a kind of personal weather system.”

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

I vowed to give up sex, bacon, and air travel if I ever made it back to terra firma in one piece.

In Texas, we cook bacon a little differently than most folks…MACHINE-GUN BACON.

Alone! Alone! No beacon, far or near! No chart, no compass, and no anchor stay!

Your life in every way should become a beacon of guidance and it should become a means for Dawah.

Your life in every way should become a beacon of guidance and it should become a means for Dawah.

I look at Jerusalem as being a beacon for the three monotheistic religions.