There are certain economics involved in making a network TV show that you want to amortize the costs of that, so the more episodes you make, the cheaper they all are individually.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about what the audience would want. That's my job, is to anticipate ahead of the audience.

I've always read a lot of historical books and I'm a big fan of documentaries, and I've always thought of ways to do it.

In order to appeal to a wider audience on network in order to survive, generally your characters need to be, at a base level, a little bit more likable.

I always think it's better to take your time and go through a lot of ideas - and dismiss a lot of ideas - before figuring out where to land. It's a good way to care for your audience, too. If you spend hours and hours and days and weeks coming up with the ending, then there's a chance the fans won't figure it out on their own.

The worst thing you can do is end up with a network show on cable or end up with a cable show on network.

Obviously there are different standards and practices that are allowed on cable versus network. You just have to embrace what your network is going to allow.