Pretty much up until The West Wing, our leaders had always been portrayed in popular culture as either Machiavellian or dolts. But I thought, "What if we show a group of people who are highly competent, they're going to lose as much as they win, but we're going to understand that they wake up every morning wanting to do good?" That was really the spirit behind The West Wing.
Aaron SorkinI would love for people to think that I am as quick, clever, smart and heroic as the characters that I write, but those characters are characters.
Aaron Sorkin