The rule, I think, is: Do your homework, learn what there is to learn about the real world, and then when you get in the room, forget it all.

To create a situation where each new episode has to start in the exact same place as the previous one, with the actors' hair in the exact same place, seemed crazy.

What you have to get used to as a writer is realizing that most of what you come up with is wrong for the show.

I think ultimately what makes the show is not the reality but the drama.

To be fair to ourselves, in almost every original script, the timing is actually worked out down to the minute.

My background is in math and science, and I thrive on complexity, and I think lots of people do. People love puzzles; it's human nature to want to solve puzzles.

You know, it's hard as a writer to lose characters (and actors) you like. You really don't want them to die because you're not going to get to see them anymore.

I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.

The moon teaches us that darkness can’t hide the beauty of life if we know how to reflect beauty.

We are who we are because of what we learn and what we remember.

Those who are blindly led, blindly follow.

Success requires, a human touch, intuitive powers and provocative thinking processes

Only a fool would dream of riches when what is rarest are moments

A few. . . critics are the only people I ever heard use the phrase 'imminent threat.' I didn't, the president didn't.

My friends should drink a dozen of Claret on my Tomb.

I love to feel a racing car around me, to feel the way it holds me. I love to make it do all that it was built to do, and then a little bit more.

In every cradle decked with rosy wreath Lurk germs of death.