You do in your art what you cannot do in your life.

I want every character be an outsider in some way.

Certainly there's got to be a little bit of reality show fatigue happening.

I was coming off of The O.C. and had very little interest in doing another teen drama. And then I got sent theGossip Girl book series, and I was like, 'I might not be ready to leave high school after all.'

At first we didn't have a lot of access to New York City, but very quickly, I think people recognized if you were on the show that was a good thing. We always saw the show as a love letter to New York City.

I think our show is very different from Orange County.

Year Two is a critical year for any television show.