When a new writer comes onto a project, he'll make wholesale changes just to mark the territory or for greater credit.

I never stopped loving the deeper sciences, and I read as deeply into lay science as I can.

I try to keep up, and the scientific perspective is always part of my creative approach.

I'd wanted to be a writer since I was knee-high. Once I knew that books were written by people and didn't just happen, it was obviously that I would write them, too.

Directing offers you the hope that your vision will reach the screen, unmolested and intact. Therefore, it's tantalizing to all writers.

It is true that, with TV, a writer gets a great deal more respect.

For a successful writer, the secret is to have many irons in the fire. Write the next thing.

You don't control whether your movies get made. You can't. All you can control is whether your draft is great. So, you write your great draft, as best as you can, and then move on to the next thing.

Making the right choices on the worlds we explore is going to be our biggest challenge.

I mean that much more than wiser beings from beyond the stars bringing us enlightenment or death or salvation, we are likely to find ourselves the wisest beings on the scene.

The world may hold startling developments and shocking unknowns.

No state, no government exists. What does in fact exist is a man, or a few men, in power over many men.

Assassination makes only martyrs, not converts.

SATIETY, n. The feeling that one has for the plate after he has eaten its contents, madam.

If in our hearts we really don't believe that God loves us as we are, if we are still tainted by the lie that we can do something to make God love us more, we are rejecting the message of the cross.

I care not where my body may take me as long as my soul is embarked on a meaningful journey.

You have to find your tone and work within that to make it as real so the audience can really engage in the story you're telling.

I stepped outside to smoke a J and when I came back to the room, everybody just seemed to move.

Of course, on every job there are moments where you're not having fun.

I don't really think of my essays as being about myself. I know it sounds insane, but I just don't think of them as a memoir. They're essays; they're not an autobiography.

The less passion there is, the better we work. The calmer we are the better for us and the more the amount of work we can do.