I Don't Feel, Finally, That My Politics

When I Teach Writing, I Always Tell My Students You Should Assume That The Audience You're Writing For Is Smarter Than You. You Can't Write If You Don't Think They're On Your Side, Because Then You Start To Yell At Them Or Preach Down To Them.

I Love Musicals But It's Very, Very Different. It's Really Just A Different Form Than Serious Drama, And Has Very Different Rules And A Completely Different Set Of Characters And Requirements And Ambitions. It Maybe Shouldn't Be As Separate As It Is, But It's Got A Different History. In Terms Of Serious Drama, I Think You'd Have To Say That You Could Break It Down Essentially Into The Narrative Realist Tradition And Experimental Theater.

The Act Of Thinking And Interpreting Is So Central To Judaism That It Makes More Sense That We've Become People Like Woody Allen - Thinkers And Talkers And Drafters Of Law.

When I Was Younger, I Used To Be Very Impatient With Anyone Who Wasn't Doing Overtly Political Work. I've Since Come To Feel That Some Writers Have An Appetite Or A Need For The Political, For Political Discourse, For Historical Political Subjects.

Who Knows Better Than Artists How Much Ugliness There Is On The Way To Beauty, How Many Ghastly, Mortifying Missteps, How Many Days Of Granitic Blockheadedness And Dismaying Ineptitude There Is On The Way To Accomplishment, How Partial All Accomplishment Is, How Incomplete?