That's a very real feeling - that I don't have a story to tell. I'm not a pure storyteller. I have a tough time with story.

A hero would die for his country, but he'd much rather live for it.

President Bartlet: There's a delegation of cardiologists having their pictures taken in the Blue Room. You wouldn't think you could find a group of people more arrogant than the fifteen of us, but there they are, right upstairs in the Blue Room.

Only criminals and adulterers should have to hide who they are.

Larry David called me and said, "You can never watch The West Wing again. Either the show is going to be great without you and you're going to be miserable, or the show is going to be less than great without you and you're going to be miserable." So I had them send a tape of the first episode that I didn't do. I put it in the VCR and I don't think I got 15 seconds in before I leapt up and slammed it off! It felt like I was watching somebody make out with my girlfriend. I've never seen a West Wing episode in seasons five, six or seven.

It seems to me that more and more we've come to expect less and less from each other, and I think that should change.

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.