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I think actors always find the dialogue doesn't quite fit, so you always have to play with it.

Sometimes, what's not said is just as important to the writing as what is said. As a writer, we have our voices heard. I think that, at oftentimes, the ability to allow the dialogue to recede properly into the world of the film is also a really valid sort of way to be a writer, I think.

As an actor, you are in a unique position because you're not only memorizing dialogue but really embodying it. You naturally feel the rhythm of good writing.

I come from a tradition where the writer writes a play for the actors, rather than for himself, and the dialogue is made to work onstage, so it needs actors to help shape it. So you never get a play right straightaway.

The pressure is always stepping on stage with actors who are just so well-established. It's a scary thing. I haven't been around the block that many times, especially not on big projects. Dialogue makes things easier. When you start bouncing dialogue off of other actors, it becomes comfortable; it becomes conversational.

There is such a thing as my kind of actor, and how well they pull off my dialogue is a very, very important part of it.

A lot of actors never talk to other actors about how they're doing things, or why. I think it's important to share the way you're thinking.

Sometimes I find it tiresome to write actions and describe the scene in a very intricate way so that every crew member understands where we are going - that I can find a little bit long and tiresome. But dialogue is just all my life. There's no way I could ever be challenged, not challenged, but I'm always so happy to write dialogue.

Reading great dialogue as an actor is such a rare privilege.

I've found that good dialogue tells you not only what people are saying or how they're communicating but it tells you a great deal - by dialect and tone, content and circumstance - about the quality of the character.