You can make a good show, but you still need some magical alchemy to get people to watch.

I don't ever want to have a weak episode of television with my name on it.

There will always be economic pressure to make hits, identify hits, and then exploit hits. And you're going to exploit them with as many episodes as you probably can.

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'm perfectly happy to color within the network lines when I have to.

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.

Working as a showrunner has made it tougher to watch other shows and movies.