If I write scripts that nobody likes, I don't think we'll be doing 'True Detective.'

Often, what allows someone to behave heroically in dire circumstances is unpalatable in day-to-day life.

I read The Conspiracy Against the Human Race and found it incredibly powerful writing. For me as a reader, it was less impactful as philosophy than as one writers ultimate confessional: an absolute horror story, where the self is the monster.

Whatever story you're telling in Louisiana, the landscape is going to become a character in it.

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

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.

I've found that all weak people share a basic obsession - they fixate on the idea of satisfaction. Anywhere you go men and women are like crows drawn by shiny objects. For some folks, the shiny objects are other people, and you'd be better off developing a drug habit.