Peter Hedges quotes:

I want to write stories that don't help you escape life, but embrace life.

Gilbert?"Some days I hate all those who know my name.

Anyway, they took her body to McBurney's Funeral Home in Motley. They'll be planting her tomorrow.

People are usually pretty hungry after a funeral. I guess it's because we all realize that time is running out and we better eat all we can. Please don't mention that to my mother.

In a cement park across the street is this giant sculpture. It is a giant umbrella frame lying on its side. It's green. Stand under it, during a rainstorm, you'll still get wet - that's why it's art.

I don't know anything about directing, but if you love actors, know your story and hire a great company, then anyone can direct a film.

I would hope that people might view their fellow beings, all beings, with more empathy, more compassion, with a desire to understand. Even if they can't know why people are the way they are, to understand that they're probably that way for a good reason.

It's supposed to go bing-bing or bong-bong or ding-ding when tires go over it. The one at Dave's stopped working several years ago, and he won't have it fixed because he feels as I do - that none of us need to be reminded we exist.

People love conversation, and movies are conversations, and an audience has to participate; it has to fill in some blanks.

The better the script, the less money there is. That's just the economics of the studio system.

The bigger the budget, the less an audience is trusted, and that's the difference between a big-budget film and a small-budget film.

The more Christian you are in this town, the more makeup you wear. I've always thought that it's because if you were to die suddenly, you'd look better for God.

I left this conversation hours ago, but somehow my mouth is still moving, words are still forming, and none have seemed to offend. Amazing, the mind. My mind, I mean. Not hers.

Who's calling?""Don't insult me like that," the voice says.I stop. Was I just insulting?

GOOD AS NEW was born out of the idea of writing a play where the stakes were high and the collisions were of a verbal nature. Also I wanted to write a play where people were smarter than I was, and more alive than I feel normally. I became interested in the idea of characters who would surprise me. I guess one could argue that nothing comes out of you that wasn't within you to begin with, but maybe there are ways to trick yourself into becoming more an observer or an advocate for the characters.

I can't stop terrorism; I can't cure cancer. But I can put some stories out there in their own quiet way that talk about tolerance.

I don't want to write my life. I live my life. I want to make up a new world.

I feel like there's a certain kind of laughter missing in the world.

I learned early on that there are all sorts of stories I have no place telling.

I spent so many years trying to become an actor, trying to be a person that I wasn't.

I think it's a fantastic thing to be alive.

I want to make accessible movies for bright people, but I don't want to play games and be coy.

I've always written for actors, and if you want to write for good actors, you have to write parts that are surprising, that are human, and that allow them to go to a wide range of places.

I've wanted to direct for a long time, but it had to be a story I wanted to tell. The writer's job is to find the story that he should tell.

My job as a dramatist is to find out where these characters want to go, and make it as hard as possible for them to get there.

There is nothing more depressing than toast that no one eats.