At the end of the day, I think the only way to do the kind of job a writer does is push everything aside and just ultimately sit down and do the work.

Time has a certain current to it, and it wants to flow in a certain direction.

In part, it's so difficult to come up with something original, to come up with a character nowadays. If you created a globetrotting adventurer, he'd be compared to Indiana Jones. If you created a super spy, he'd be compared to James Bond.

The guy who sits at the keyboard and types is so much smarter than I am. I think I got into writing so that I could spend as much time with that guy as possible.

You can save the city, but having the city be in jeopardy is one thing and having the people you care about be in jeopardy is another.

I'm very fortunate in that all the mediums I work in are extremely collaborative. Movies are probably the most solitary on a day to day basis, but even then you have producers and studio executives to work with and bounce ideas off of.

Your subconscious is always working in the background, unlocking things and solving problems.