It's certainly easy for me to make a fictional character mad about something. I can get them angry about something that I'm relatively indifferent about, just because I'm not educated on it, if I go to someone who is educated about it and is passionate about it. I find a point of fiction and then give it to them.

Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for.

Conflict, when used as a device, makes for good television and bad journalism.

I've never met anyone who has said, "My goal is to make America mediocre." That's a kind of hard-right conservative fallacy.

Certainly, last year we did an episode about the census and sampling versus a direct statistic. You just said the word 'census', and people fall asleep.

Toby: All right. It couldn't have gone far, right? Sam: No. Toby: Somewhere in this building...is our talent.

The guy who wins the Oscar for Best Actor has a much higher bar to clear than the woman who wins best actress.