If I had even the tiniest scrap of advice to give to a young actor who was figuring out how to audition, I would say don't memorize the script... The reality about auditions is that 98 percent of the results has to do with what you are, not with what you did in the audition.

For me, a play is a form of writing which isn’t complete until it is interpreted by actors. But it’s still a form of writing. And so most of my time is spent thinking about how to write a sentence.

When I was first starting to write plays, I quite literally had never heard of the idea of studying playwriting. I wouldn’t have studied it even if I had heard of it.

I don’t see that many plays, and for me, musicals are rarely pleasing.

I don’t see that many plays, and for me, musicals are rarely pleasing. I feel the actors are being put through a kind of nightmarish labor. They’re like animals being forced to pull heavy carts of vegetables at incredible speeds.

But because we’ve all been readers, we know what the experience is like, and we hope that what certain writers have given to us, we will give to someone.

I never grew up thinking, ‘One day I will play so and so’ because I wasn’t expecting to be an actor at all.

In real life, every person is the leading man or woman. We don’t think of ourselves as supporting or character actors.

I think the whole system of education would change if I were in charge and had the ability to make changes. I don’t think I would keep Princeton exactly being Princeton.

I was clever enough to know that John Donne was offering something that was awfully enjoyable. I just wasn’t clever enough to actually enjoy it.