Eric Bogosian

I do write about people who are complex and are striving with something and can't quite get past their own stuff, which would be a proxy for myself because that's what the deal is with me.

I know that I'm inadequate, but I never thought that at seventeen. I thought I was doing the best I could. I thought I was being idealistic.

I'm not hip, I'm not cool, I'm not glib.

I love playing other people's work. I love acting.

If we all knew we were going to live to be 150 years old, we'd all approach our lives very differently.

Well, the real Eric Bogosian is pretty self-conscious of himself.

If you say city to people, people have no problem thinking of the city as rife with problematic, screwed-up people, but if you say suburbs - and I'm not the first person to say this, it's been said over and over again in literature - there's a sense of normalcy.

If all I ever wrote about was inner city freaks, I think it would be dishonest.

For a long time, my shows were about people walking out or about getting my gigs canceled or having the presenter not wanting to pay me.

The world intrudes in my brain daily. Since my brain is dripping with all kinds of stuff that's out there in the world, that I can't seem to be able to shut out, it has to end up being in my work as well.

I'm not a light-hearted person, so I can't think light-hearted at work.

I'm always surprised by things that happen to my work.