I wasn't a big science-fiction fan growing up. But I loved Jules Verne and Sherlock Holmes. Both came into play on 'The X-Files.'

Respect yourself, your Opponent and the Game

When something original works, then everyone wants to copy it. But if you're trying to do something that no one's ever seen before it's frightening.

Learning to fly an airplane taught me a way of thinking, an approach to problem-solving that was applicable and effective. Pilots are very methodical and meticulous, and artists tend not to be.

I think science is about the search for God; it just comes at it from a different angle than religion.

It's really hard to scare people on network television. You've got to be smart about it. You've got to parcel out the scares.

New Zealand totally rejects Japan's proposals to double the number of whales slaughtered in the Southern Ocean

People thought the storyline and characters for 'X-Files' made it a 'dark' show, but I never saw it that way. I always thought Mulder and Scully were the light in dark places.

There's always the pressure to make the movie good.

You have these catch-phrases that you associate with 'The X-Files': 'Trust No One,' 'Deny Everything.' 'Believe the Lie' was one of them.

I love jazz and funk, because it's hard. If it's not hard, it's not worth doing.

I froze, shocked. (And don't try to claim that you did anything different the first time a government bureaucrat pulled a gun on you.)

I don't let myself 'surf' on the Web, or I would probably drown.

Pam said, "Sookie, I brought you something, too. I never thought I'd want to spend time with a human, but you're more tolerable than most.

...Be grateful for what you have to be thankful for instead of complaining about the little things that annoy you.

Every time I give a straight answer and read it in a magazine, I say, 'Ouch.' One day I'd like to talk to a psychoanalyst about why celebrities reveal so much of themselves in interviews.

I think you either have to have a very strong decisive person at the top or else a really brilliant staff command.

I wish I could say I write 9-5. It's usually more like 8-6, every day but the weekends.

The gift of imagination is by no means an exclusive property of the artist; it is a gift we all share; to some degree or other all of us, all of you, are endowed with the powers of fantasy.

If you were starting from scratch to invent an instrument that could impose fiscal discipline, the last one on earth you would come up with is the United States government.

Piety does not mean that a man should make a sour face about things, and refuse to enjoy in moderation what his Maker has given.