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

The Atlantic really gave me my writing career - even just the conviction to be a writer.

There's never been anything I didn't love that I didn't connect with on a personal level because to some degree, I projected upon it.

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.

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.

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

For me as a storyteller, I want to follow the characters and the story through what they organically demand.