The thing I know how to do most is write a play. I came up loving plays and learning about plays and writing plays. I actually feel like an outsider when I'm writing movies and television.

To use a basketball metaphor, West Wing cast was a group that liked to pass as much as they liked to shoot.

And a wheat thin the size of Lake Tahoe.

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.

A friend is somebody who says the same things to your face that they would say if you're not in the room.

I don't have personal experience and knowledge about anything but theater. I've been tutored very well on the subject, but ultimately I'm going back to the rules of drama. There are genres that I like as an audience member that I can't write as a writer. I can't write crime, and I like a good thriller as much as anybody.

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