When I sit down, I find that it's much easier for me to want to consume a movie than to dip back into 20 or 40 or 60 hours of a television series. I think a great movie is really amazing. But, television does give you a larger canvas.

The primary reason people watch television is you want to see the world through somebody else's eyes, and learn what that's like. You can only live one life, and so you get to see other lives through these characters.

I don't like television and movies where it's like, "Well, that was entertaining, but when I think back on it, that didn't really make sense and it's empty." That's like junk food, to me.

It sounds corny, but I think people need stories to process the world. That's our business. That's the job we're in. We tell stories.

You can't outsmart or outguess the audience in terms of what the narrative answer is.

If my whole game depends on whether you can guess the ending or not, I'm done, forget it.

As a journalist you have to think quickly, you're exposed to all types of people and situations and you've got to synthesize your thoughts in a very clear and concise way and write them down quickly. Those were all things that have proven really useful in my life as a television writer.