In the summer of 2010, I had decided to get into film and TV writing, so I wrote scripts for six different ideas I had developed, and the pilot for True Detective was one of them.

I was raised by television. It was my first cultural window. It was a constant companion.

My ultimare goal is, without illusion and without sentimentality, merely by telling the truth as I see it, to break your heart. If I can break your heart and cause your awareness to expand to include another person's experience, even a fictional person's experience, and to inhabit for a moment their sorrow and suffering, then I think it expands us as people.

We live in a culture that has a real hard time distinguishing fiction from reality. Even when they're told something is fiction.

It’s better to not have a reputation than a bad one.

I made True Detective like it was going to be the only thing I ever made for television. So put in everything and the kitchen sink. Everything.

At DePauw, I was teaching writing and fiction. The things I wanted to teach, more than anything else, were form and theory of the novel, of narrative. I liked those classes.