My preference would have been to not go back on the air after 9\11, at all until the time felt right but that wasn't an option.

Never argue with a drunk or a fool.

The downside to series television is that the schedule is ferocious. It constantly feels like you have a midterm due that you haven't started yet.

The hardest thing for me is getting started. If I'm writing a script, really 90 per cent of it would be just walking around, climbing the walls, just trying to put the idea together. Then the final 10 per cent would be writing it.

Trying to guess what the (mass) audience wants and then trying to satisfy that is usually a bad recipe for getting something good.

The stuff that I write doesn't work very well as background music. You have to watch it from beginning to end and pay attention as if you were watching a play.

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.