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" The main question in drama, the way I was taught, is always, 'What does the protagonist want?' That's what drama is. It comes down to that. It's not about theme, it's not about ideas, it's not about setting, but what the protagonist wants. "

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" A liberal pretending to be a conservative? That's like a straight person pretending to be gay to get greater acceptance. "

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" I hate vacations. There's nothing to do. "

" I like Bach. I like Randy Newman. "

" I love working on a typewriter - the rhythm, the sound; it's like playing the piano, which I do, too. "

" People only speak to get something. "

" 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. "

" I've always been more comfortable sinking while clutching a good theory than swimming with an ugly fact. "

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" I've always been fascinated by the picaresque. "

" One person may need (or want) more leisure, another more work; one more adventure, another more security, and so on. It is this diversity that makes a country, indeed a state, a city, a church, or a family, healthy. 'One-size-fits-all,' and that size determined by the State has a name, and that name is 'slavery.' "

" People ask me, 'What do you do?' And I tell them I'm a writer, but always with the silent reservation, 'I am, of course, not really a writer. Hemingway was a writer.' "

" My definition of a 'friend' is, coming from Chicago, someone who says, 'Yeah, sure. You know what? Let's talk about what we can talk about. Let's help each other out. Your politics are none of my business.' "

" In a world we find terrifying, we ratify that which doesn't threaten us. "

" Our job, as writers is to do our jobs. "

" Being among my people is a delight. We Jews live among ourselves. I love it. "

" I used to think I'd like to be a fireman - in fact, I still would - and the only drawback I could see was coming back to the firehouse, after a day of fighting fires, and still having to put in an eight-hour day writing. "

" The individual is not only best qualified to provide his own personal defense, he is the only one qualified to do so: and his right to do so is guaranteed by the Constitution. "

" I'm not an ascetic. "

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" We Americans have always considered Hollywood, at best, a sinkhole of depraved venality. And, of course, it is. It is not a protective monastery of aesthetic truth. It is a place where everything is incredibly expensive. "

" When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry. "

" Culture exists and evolves to relegate to habit categories of interactions the constant conscious reference to which would make human interaction impossible. "

" My idea of perfect happiness is a healthy family, peace between nations, and all the critics die. "

" The product of the artist has become less important than the fact of the artist. We wish to absorb this person. We wish to devour someone who has experienced the tragic. In our society this person is much more important than anything he might create. "

" You can't write about history without writing about politics at some point. History is about movements of people. 'What is criminality and what is government' is a theme that runs through every history. "

" You get rich through luck. You get rich through crime. You get rich through fulfilling the needs of another. You can be as greedy as you like. If you can't do one of those three things, you ain't going to get any money. "

" The liberals in my neighbourhood wouldn't give away Brentwood to the Palestinians, but they want to give away Tel Aviv. "

" Listen, here's the thing about an English degree - if you sat somebody down and asked them to make a list of the writers they admire over the last hundred years, see how many of them got a degree in English. "

" I didn't knowingly meet a conservative until, to my shame, I was 60 years old and sat down and said, 'Wow, I don't understand what this guy's talking about, but he has a great civility about him. Perhaps I better investigate this thing.' "

" It's upsetting to be a man in our society. "

" I always thought the real violence in Hollywood isn't what's on the screen. It's what you have to do to raise the money. "

" The quality I most admire in a man is steadfastness. "