Stupid people surround themselves with smart people. Smart people surround themselves with smart people who disagree with them.

You can only write, 'Somebody wants something, something else is in their way of getting it.'

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

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an actor. I was acting in all the school plays. I went to school for acting. I was really sure that that's what I wanted to do.

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

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.

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.