It's the open ocean right now because it's so unique. It's a really unique way of doing American television. There are a million possibilities. We can stay with the cops. We can introduce new worlds. And, who knows where it will end.

If I had multiple lives, I'd like to do many things, including being a homicide investigator. I'm not brave enough to chase people and draw down on them. Having spent time with that, it can be an incredibly terrifying job.

The thing I love about this story [The Killing] and this type of storytelling is that I don't have to know the end before I know the beginning.

I've always been kind of drawn to the extremities of human nature. I wrote my first screenplay when I was 16. The initial idea was a friendship between two prostitutes, and I spent time with a vice squad guy in Cincinnati who brought me to a brothel and gave me the rundown on how street prostitution works.

Before I write anything, before I create any assumption in my mind about what it's like to be in that world, I go out there first. I'm very drawn to darkness and light, very drawn to cop drama, because there are very few places besides war and murder and a homicide investigation where you see the extremes of human nature - the darkest crevices and cracks in what people do to one another.

It's a challenge, for sure. My family is not seeing me at all, for probably the next six months, and they haven't seen me for the last year. I'm really blessed with a lot of great partners, including my writing staff. Being able to rely on the people around me has really helped out.

And as cynical and jaded as many have become, you see the heroic nature of cops, who put aside a lot of their own personal concerns and their families to speak for the dead, which is a sacred thing. Over time there is this thing in them that is very powerful and interesting and provocative to me.