Chemistry is not anything an executive producer or writer can orchestrate or plan; you just hope for it.

But I do believe that in all my shows, I really enjoy the quirky, the eccentric characters, the ones you don't meet every day.

I gravitate toward the law, I think, certainly more times than not, because it's our best mechanism for legislating human behavior, and morality, and ethics.

We also have issue oriented storylines which are an examination of an issue, be it ethical or social.

When I really have to push and grope and scratch and claw to make a story work, that's a telltale sign that maybe something conceptually isn't right.

In retrospect, I think it's a plus, because now we've been able to go back and spend extra time on each of those episodes and make them better.

Some of my high school teachers did remind me that I had an excellent imagination when it came to making up excuses.

You learn more when things go wrong.

When you create a show, and create characters, these people are like children to you.

I never thought of myself as a writer.

For me, I'm happy to succeed on any network.

Those who are not angry at the things they should be angry at are thought to be fools, and so are those who are not angry in the right way, at the right time, or with the right persons.

that love is the most powerful force in the world. That love can do anything.

I am different. And I don't understand exactly how. And I don't understand just why.

Another world exists that I must experience. A genus of people exists who I must meet. I must inhale the air they breathe--share their world at all costs.

Poverty, the racial divide and social injustice do not impact only those who suffer most visibly. Alleviating poverty and injustice is a responsibility we must never forget or abandon.

A second basic fact that characterizes nonviolence is that it does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding.

Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these.

I saw you standing on a veranda you'd built with your own hands. And I loved you.

But if you've ever felt love, you'll know how painful it is to suffer for love.

I suppose every time [something bad happens], I have that instinct to make that joke that distracts.