I write for fanboy moments. I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of. I write to do all the things the viewers want too. So the intensity of the fan response is enormously gratifying. It means I hit a nerve.

Don't give me songs, give me something to sing about!

I'm not great at fear. I made the least frightening vampire show ever on TV. I'm pretty much good at heroic narratives and making people laugh, and that's pretty much it.

What I love most about icons is finding out what's behind them, exploring the price of their power.

I love all genres. The only thing I get stymied by is the Family Drama. I don't necessarily know how to approach that.

If something isn't working, if you have a story that you've built and it's blocked and you can't figure it out, take your favorite scene, or your very best idea or set-piece, and cut it. It's brutal, but sometimes inevitable.

If the apocalypse comes...beep me!