■ My best friend, Lyn Pusztai, is a visual artist. She made me a little placard that’s on the wall right by my bed that says, in very beautiful cursive writing, “It Just Does Not Matter.” That’s what I wake up to nearly every day. My teaching, my directing, my career, my looks — I don’t give a fuck. I give a fuck about people.

■ A lot of times when I teach, people think I’m going to be this negative, abrasive, aggressive person. But I’m not. I’m very kind. I think it’s important to be honest with notes but also extremely affirming. You can say, “You sucked in that last scene. You have to get better, or we’re going to drop you.” Or you can say, “Do you mind if I offer a suggestion? I think you had a difficult time in that last scene. One idea, next time, is to just be a little louder and more committed. Is that cool?” Same note but just said differently.

■ I was born in Hazard, Kentucky. My grandfather and father were coal miners. My dad wanted to get out of the mine, so he moved us to Ohio when I was very young. He started a construction company. He was up at 6 in the morning, cracking a beer and getting on a backhoe. So I grew up around tradespeople. I’ve been in sewer ditches for 10 hours. It made an impact on me in a good way.

■ I ended up getting to know Del Close after I got to Chicago in 1987. I was a student of his, then he directed me, then we became friends when I started Annoyance Theatre. One thing I learned from him is how to quietly command a room. He was good at that.

■ I stopped smoking about 19 years ago. Bad story of my life: I took a drug called Chantix and had a year and a half of daily suicidal ideation. Suicidal ideation is this bizarre thing that has no emotional foundation. You just become obsessed with the idea of killing yourself: How can I kill myself with this pair of glasses? Wouldn’t it be interesting if I just walked into traffic right now? When I was on an L platform, I’d have to hang on to a pole because I fancied the idea of jumping in front of a train. I would think these thoughts at least 50 times a day.

■ I don’t like to watch comedy if I don’t have to. I’m jaded. If there’s something that’s supposed to make me laugh, like a film or a television show, it’s hard for me to laugh. I laugh at torture porn films. I remember getting high and seeing The Human Centipede 2 at midnight at the Music Box and just laughing my ass off. It was horrifying, but oh my God, it was so fun.

■ Twenty-something years ago, I directed an independent film called Fatty Drives the Bus. It was pretty bad. I call it film school, because that’s how I learned to direct in that medium. We were trying to get it financed, and I called Mike Myers. Horrible conversation. He was freaked out I called. We were friends, and suddenly I became a person who wanted something from him. I haven’t talked to him since.

■ My extreme atheism becomes ironically spiritual in that I’m so ensconced in the idea that this is the only life I’ll ever have. That gives me a great deal of freedom and power to live in the moment.