I'm always amazed by writers who say, "Oh you know I had a half hour so I sat down and wrote a little bit." I just need a real big chunk of time to sit down and focus. That's my process.

I have a rule: I will not alter the basic history of a real-life character to suit our fictional needs in a big way.

As Oscar tells to Chalky, eventually we all run out of road...

I started with the book Boardwalk Empire and then immersed myself in the history of Atlantic City, World War I, the temperance movement, Prohibition, pop culture. I even read the news and magazines of the period just to soak in it. That was before I even started thinking of the story.

I'm always amazed by writers who say, "Oh you know I had a half hour so I sat down and wrote a little bit." I just need a real big chunk of time to sit down and focus. That's my process.

Any distraction tends to get in the way of being an effective gangster.

I was in the equity-trading department at Merrill Lynch. I was there in 1987 when the market crashed.