I was raised not to be rude, but I also try to get the best work out of people.

I hardly see myself as a futurist.

I do love television. But the business is accelerating and people are not getting the chance to fail.

[My] dream writers room: "'Naked City.' Because it still holds up as the absolutely quintessential New York pure cop procedural."

The story drove the book. That had a very seminal effect on the way I saw writing and storytelling. If you can set a character in a story that is compelling and has a backbone, you draw people in.

It's show business. No show, no business.

I get bored with establishing shots of people getting out of cars and walking into buildings, getting into elevators and then 45 seconds later they have a line.