Naomi Foner

I write about family all the time. I can't exactly tell you why. I think it's a really important and significant arena. The terrain of family involves two very powerful people who are parents and two -- or however many -- dependent children. The power of the parents is usually something they don't understand they have. They don't really get it. Show less «

I'm very proud of them (her children Jake Gyllenhaal and Maggie Gyllenhaal). I think their choices are very thoughtful and they will affect a lot of people, and they have a lot of courage, and they will cause people to think and change their minds. I am delighted to see that they're the kinds of people that they are. I'm very unhappy that we live in a culture that is so closed-minded about a range of ideas and thoughts, and I'm even more unhappy that fear is often used as a way to manipulate that. Certainly as a parent I worry for them, every parent worries for their child, but I'm enormously proud of them. Show less «

When I write, I see a movie playing in my head. The role of the screenwriter is to step back and let the directors have their head during the process. Sometimes they're amazing -- often they make wonderful additions, as do the actors -- and sometimes the films are different in a way that you wish they weren't. I think at some point or another, every screenwriter feels like they would like to fall on their own sword, and try to get it to come out the way that they saw it. Show less «