You can have a good moment with a parent you are estranged from, and you have a great moment, and then the next time you see them, everything's back to the way it was before and you guys are throwing knives at each other.

No one in my writers' room can wear sweatpants.

Writing is a sad process, sitting on your ass for many, many hours, alone in a room, smelling like coffee, sadness and bitterness, and watching your youth leave.

I would recommend that any writer get off their ass at least once and just try it. Directing is a completely different set of muscles. It also affects your writing because, once you start directing, you tend to write your scripts with directing in mind.

Life doesn't tend to fix things or wrap them up in bows.

It helps, if you've directed, to be able to write a script that is director-friendly. You're really telling them [directors], "This is how it works on this show." It takes some of the guesswork out of it.

If something ain't working, it ain't working. You can't stick with it.