Mobster stories are always a harder sell for me. I don't romanticize organize crime the way others do, though I can be swayed.

While I don't like violent programs per se, I do like good storytelling, which made me a fan of shows like Breaking Bad and American Horror Story.

It seems to me conspiracy is at the heart of dozens of TV dramas currently on. Maybe that itself is some kind of conspiracy.

Never forget that I am paid for my troubles!

Jarecki's 'Reagan' is a compellingly watchable and appropriately conflicted portrait...artfully nuanced and intellectually curious.

"Big Bang Theory" focuses on main characters who in other shows would only be auxiliary players hewing to stereotype: The gawky nerd who lives next door and says oddball things.

I think the occasional appearance of the UFO is a very oblique pop-cultural reference that anyone who was alive and sentient in the late 1970s will get right away.

I have to confess I can't have the holiday season without "Hard Candy Christmas". For some reason, it makes me think of the sticky ribbon candy bowl my mid-western grandma always had.

In fact, when it comes to TV, I'm not even sure what my real, true preferences are.

My work is very much like the restaurant critic's - a number of factors come together to make for a strong review.

In the end, all critics should be guided by this one principle: Is this piece of work [TV show, movie, play, concert, album, restaurant] succeeding at what it set out to do?

For my mum, to whom I'd turn in a heartbeat.

When they have contemplated the world, human beings have always experienced a transcendence and mystery at the heart of existence.

Every country I've had different hit records, so we have to change the set to fit the country.

I give myself a pep talk and visualize the routine. I tell myself: "I can do this, let's go!"

The new growth in the plant swelling against the sheath, which at the same time imprisons and protects it, must still be the truest type of progress.

It is much easier to be flexible about where a story begins than it ever was for me to change my mind about where and how a story ended.

The idea that the GLC should be abolished at a stroke is ill though out, undemocratic and will cost the people of London dear.

We continue to blame the poor for their own condition. They are lazy. We do not want to know that the poorest of the poor are toddlers under three years of age.

What can I contribute that will significantly affect the performance and the results of the institution I serve?

To quote from another gospel, DUNE by Frank Herbert, 'Fear is the mind-killer.' ... Jesus was the original Muad'dib.