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.

When I write a film, the film gets handed off to a producer and a director and I go my merry way. With television, I am expected and contracted to stick around and actually produce what I've written.

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.

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

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 away from thinking about something is as valuable - perhaps even more so - than directly thinking about it.

I think when you do a season of television you go into it going I'd like the season premiere needs to be amazing. The season finale needs to be amazing.