Art was always for me an escape and a way to relate to the world around me.

Whatever I watched, whatever I loved in 36 years of life on Earth, probably had some influence on me.

If landscape is a character for me, then it helps if I'm familiar with it and I already have a take on it.

As someone with a novelistic background, I just didn't have much interest in creating stories by committee. I don't think you necessarily get the best story through that approach.

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.

You just do the best you can, and when you're able to connect with people, and when you do, it's just incredibly gratifying.