I went to NYU undergraduate, then for a Master's in English, and got a summer job at St. Vincent's. I was a ward clerk handling everything in an intensive care unit.

You really have to do your job as a writer and push people to be as creative as possible. What's nice about the TV medium is you have such a connection to the characters that when somebody dies, the audience cries. They really feel it. You really don't cry when someone dies in a horror movie.

The key things I learned as a hospital administrator are to be organized, communicate, and be flexible.

A lot of what I do as a showrunner is anxiety control. People get nervous when they don't know what's going on, so a big part of my job is making sure everyone has all of the information all of the time.

The comic book, and I've said it before, is a treasure trove. It's a grab bag. We certainly have characters and story lines that we really want to do - but to get there in a TV series, you have to take your time. Sometimes you can't get right to it. They're two different mediums. So we make it our own and really own the material. I like to think of it as an alternate universe.

When you're managing an emergency department, you're trying to keep everybody calm, so when an emergency comes in the door, everyone can do their best work.

It's better to grow your employees, steer them into a place that they can learn and succeed, and want to work hard and be loyal, than to have a revolving door of employees. That's demoralizing.