I think if you want to make a recipe for making a writer, have them feel a little out of place everywhere, have them be an observer kind of all the time.

Why do you write like you're running out of time?

I work my inspiration til I find a spark of life in it I draw on it I siphon it I earn my multi-hyphenate.

That's being yourself. Chasing wherever inspiration goes, even if it's radically different from the thing that people know you as.

Anytime you write something, you go through so many phases. You go through the I’m a Fraud phase. You go through the I’ll Never Finish phase. And every once in a while you think, What if I actually have created what I set out to create, and it’s received as such?

I try not to think of writing as a burden at all. My job is to fall in love… It’s really about being inspired and being in love… If it starts to feel like a responsibility and it starts to feel like homework... I need it to feel like a love affair.

I like the quiet it takes to pursue an idea the way I pursued “Hamilton,” but I couldn't write a book, because there's no applause at the end of writing a book.

Come on brain, think of thingsCome on brain, think of thingsCome on brain, be so smart

When I get called in for stuff for Hollywood, I get to be the best friend of the Caucasian leadIf I want to play the main guy, I have found, I have to write it.