The thing that has always interested me in the kinds of shows that I do have more to do with the consequences of behavior than the behavior itself. Pulling a trigger and shooting somebody, or dismembering somebody.

When it is perceived that a show has gone awry, the pressure is staggering, and as a writer caught in that storm, it feels like you are being attacked by jackals.

One of the problems of writing is that anyone who commits themselves to that process has to believe that they're good.

Being a good television screenwriter requires an understanding of the way film accelerates the communication of words.

You have to give directors and cinematographers a word blueprint for visuals, but I had to learn that from experience.

Television and film are such streamlined story mediums. You can't really meander about, whereas a novel is an interior experience.

Hill Street Blues gave me an opportunity to work with an ensemble cast of people whose work I admired.