But I like to mix the serious with laughter. It's a way of admitting that the stories we're all involved in are crazy.
I didn't have a teacher like Sister Mary Ignatius.
I grew up wanting to be a writer for theatre.
Laughter can bring a new perspective.
My father knew the charming side of my mother, and my mother thought that he was attentive and pleasant and was an architect, which was a respectable profession, but I don't think that they actually got to know one another deeply.
My father was an alcoholic, and my mother fought with him when he was drunk, which was not necessarily the best way to confront the problem.
My parents didn't really know one another.
On the one hand, I'm grateful to be hired and thrilled to be paid.
One of my impulses in writing is to take people's crazy behavior and try to make order of what sometimes feels chaotic in the past.
Since I also act, sometimes I get over my resentment and commit to the pitch as an acting job.
Since it's based on my parents, it's more emotionally close to me than some of my more surreal plays. And then I like the balance of the comic and the sad. It should play as funny, but you should care about the characters and feel sad for them.
Sometimes people are offended by my plays. They have said no, no this is serious, there is no laughter involved.
Then in college I became obsessed with film, and wanted to be part of that.
Usually you cannot laugh if you are in a bad mood or in the throes of a problem that seems like the most serious problem in the world.
When my parents separated, I was very grateful.
When you are in the midst of a specific incident in your family, it's upsetting. By putting it into a play, you clarify it.
You weren't meant to eat meat on Friday in deference to Christ, who died on Friday. If you did, you went to hell.
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