If you think about how broadcast mini-series approach historical events, there is a hagiography. There has been a soft, very glossy idea about history. And one of the things I like about Game of Thrones, for example, is just the grit and the authenticity.

We also have a piece about the Mayflower, but it's just a very different, very gritty, very character-driven version of why those people were on that boat and what the experience was like for them, emotionally, physically and spiritually, and also the Native Americans and what the state of Native American society was at that time.

It's easier to solve the problem more quickly with directors than with writers.

I read every draft of every episode of every series produced at FX.

I believe really deeply in the pilot process because you learn things about tone and casting.

I don't think I ever had any relationship with any showrunner, over time, with whom I didn't have conflict.

I think a shotgun or a handgun that has a six-round clip is a very good, perfectly adequate weapon for self-defense, in the home. You simply can't create that kind of mayhem, if you have to reload.