I'd been concerned all along that the character of the president in the West Wing pilot would throw the ensemble out of whack, that that character would simply take up all the oxygen in a room. I wanted to hold off bringing this character in until the last possible moment.

I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue. But when I'm writing, the way the words sound is as important to me as what they mean.

Just to clarify the division of labor on the show, I write the show and Alan [Poul] does everything else.

I do enjoy the fact that we don't have a king or queen; we have a person with a very unusual temp job for a few years. My favorite moments on the show were always showing the intersection of the person and the job. Any time Bartlet from the West Wing could be something other than the president - a father, or a husband, or a son, or a friend.

It's a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb.

The real problem with all drugs is that they work. Fantastically. They're great, right up until the moment they kill you.

Elite is not a bad word, it's an aspirational one.