“What I think of as 'freakonomics' is mostly storytelling around an ide...” — Stephen J. Dubner Quote

What I think of as 'freakonomics' is mostly storytelling around an idea - not a theme but an idea. I like ideas much more than themes. Themes are boring. Themes are, 'Wool is back,' but ideas are, 'Why is wool back?'

I believe that people generally want to be what we call good. They want to cooperate with people. They don't want to steal; they don't want to cheat. But everybody has a price. Everybody has an incentive.

We took our Catholicism very seriously. We never missed Mass; our father was a lector, and both our parents taught catechism. At 3 in the afternoon on Good Friday, we gathered in the living room for 10 minutes of silence in front of a painting of the Crucifixion.

Religion is a way to make order from chaos, and I think economics is not dissimilar. In religion and in economics, you're trying to figure out the way we perceive the world and move through it, and that's what I like to learn.

I need people - theatrics and schmoozing and storytelling are part of my talent.

Film and television are major vehicles for American storytelling, and America is the biggest exporter and influencer in the world in terms of telling stories.

When I work on my own stuff - and I think this is true for anybody - but when you work on something that you just completely own, you are trying to stay as true to your own storytelling voice as you can.

I was deeply infected with storytelling from the get go, and I truly love it.

I never made a clear-cut in my mind between theatre and film, as I always felt that at the heart of both of them is storytelling and acting.