What I would have liked to do on that show was play a secretary of state who has huge personal business interests throughout the world. That, to me, seems to be more in synch with reality.

Ultimately the Emmys are a popularity contest.

I would fix other people's lines if they asked me on occasion. The hard part of writing is the architecture of it, getting the story and structuring it. Not the tweaking of lines.

I live out in the desert, in farm country. I'm around a lot of farmers, guys with packing houses, that sort of thing. Half the time, these guys are in their pajamas or in their slippers. It's their place.

The West Wing seems to be feeding the myth about how presidential politics are.

I try to watch only real things, which basically amounts to C-Span for me. I like real people in real situations. I learn from that.

The business is built on slowing or even stopping the aging process.