As an actor, you're tied to the writing. You live and die by what's written for you. And you can elevate that to a certain extent, but really, that's your blueprint.
I was an English major in college, took a ton of creative writing courses, and was a newspaper reporter for 10 years.
People are always coming up to me with my books and saying, 'You write these things I think but I could never say.'
Providing a writer isn't put off by conventions - and some are - attending them can be a nice break from the necessary isolation of writing.
Whenever you're writing something that's reflective, you have to put yourself through some sort of ordeal just to understand the way you're feeling.
I'm a joke comic. I tell jokes. I like writing a joke, and I like when a joke works, and I like other comics who tell jokes.
If you write a book that's as powerful and successful as 'Bastard,' there's a strong desire to prove there's something else.
I will not write a lame follow-up. It could take me 20 years. But I will never turn in a book that I'm not happy with.
Some people take 10 years to write a book and some can do one in under a year.
But if I worried too much about publishers' expectations, I'd probably paralyze myself and not be able to write anything.
A certain luxury when you get to writing a novel is to have the space to have your characters just banter.
I want to make films and write films, which will happen, I'm just taking a different route right now. I'm a bit of a chameleon with the whole entertainment industry so to speak.
Once I've written something it does tend to run away from me. I don't seem to have any part of it - it's no longer my piece of writing.
It's hard to find a play that's right for me to do. Rather than waiting around for the right script to come along, I decided to write one myself.
I really like comedy. There's always a choice, when you're writing: you can either go for the joke or you can go for the story, the important stuff.
As a kid, I spent every summer bent over a stack of books, obsessively writing detailed reports on each one.
I've come to find more satisfaction and enjoyment in writing screenplays over the years because that's what I do primarily now.
For TV I don't think I could have gotten a better part than Uncle Junior because of the intimacy of the character based on David Chase's brilliant writing.
The things worth writing about, and the things worth reading about, are the things that feel almost beyond description at the start and are, because of that, frightening.
I just wanted to make a record that wasn't escapism. Like, I didn't want to write another record that was devoid of meaningful content.
It's always like you write a poem when you can't really say what you're trying to say.
