I don't think I write differently when I'm writing a screenplay, as opposed to a stage play or a teleplay. Maybe if I were in a film class and there was time to think about it, we could point out differences.

I'm a playwright. All I care about is the play being good.

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

Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep can play with the boys but there just aren't that many tour-de-force roles out there for women.

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

But HBO is less interested in how many people are watching than in how much the people who are watching are liking the show. They didn't set up their business model to make writers happy. It's just a nice unintended consequence.

It's populated by people who, by and large, have terrific communication skills. Every day is an extraordinary day. For me, it was just a great area for storytelling.