"What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom 'to' and freedom 'from.'"

"Skill is successfully walking a tightrope between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Intelligence is not trying."

"Be able to live alone, even if you don't want to and think you will never find it necessary."

"To acquire knowledge, one must study but to acquire wisdom, one must observe."

"I hear the way people talk about the children of famous people. They're not treated very well. The presumptions are usually quite awful. So I tried to establish myself with a couple of movies. After 'Juno' I thought: 'I think I've defined myself enough as my own director that I'd love to work with my father.'"

"I'm from Minnesota! I used to work Knuckleheads at the Mall of America as a stand-up. I spent New Year's there once. I'm not trying to namedrop."

"I fell into playwriting accidentally, took some classes in it, and also took creative writing classes, but I really didn't expect it to be a career because I didn't believe there was a way to make money as a playwright without being lucky and I didn't feel particularly lucky."

"I give thanks everyday that I've been able to take my craziness and make it work for me."