Not taking criticism of your writing personally is an enormous step towards surviving the studio system.

You have to be willing to throw [writing] stuff away and replace it.

I liked writing, and I loved movies, obsessively loved movies, but I had never made the leap of thinking I would actually come out here and write stuff.

For a living I write stuff that I know is gonna sell to a studio and make a lot of money at the multiplex.

If you can learn to be incredibly passionate about your work without fighting for it just because it's yours, that's a huge thing.

There are a huge amount of people who sell a TV pilot, every year, but most of them never get produced. It's very easy to make a living and never get anything produced.

Probably your first agent is going to be some guy who also handles dog acts.