My dad was a labour lawyer, and the ideas that I grew up with – bad management, bad capitalism, robber barons – when I applied this to my own life, I saw that we are all on both sides of the coin.
I know very well what it is to be out of work and to be cheated by employers and I know what it is to be an employer.
I don’t really have a social life.
President Obama seems to understand the Constitution as a ‘set of suggestions.’
Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.
I like Bach. I like Randy Newman.
My idea of perfect happiness is a healthy family, peace between nations, and all the critics die.
Always tell the truth – it’s the easiest thing to remember.
The liberals in my neighbourhood wouldn’t give away Brentwood to the Palestinians, but they want to give away Tel Aviv.
When I started out I was a failed actor.
I’ve been alienating my public since I was 20 years old.
Our job, as writers is to do our jobs.
The surprise is half the battle. Many things are half the battle, losing is half the battle. Let’s think about what’s the whole battle.
A liberal pretending to be a conservative? That’s like a straight person pretending to be gay to get greater acceptance.
Films have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement – they offer not drama but thrills.
Conservatives believe in smaller government and in the power of the electorate. So I think that we’re less likely to try to use a dramatic forum to warp people’s political views.
My tendency as an actor was to correct people, was to say, ‘What if we tried it this way, what about if we tried that way?’ That’s terrible habit for an actor, but that’s a good habit for director. So I became a director.
I grew up in a tough neighborhood and we used to say you can get further with a kind word and a gun than just a kind word.
The job of the artist, is to say, wait a second, everything that we have thought is wrong. Let’s re-examine it.
When we leave the play saying how spectacular the sets or costumes were, or how interesting the ideas, it means we had a bad time.