As a dramatist, you're looking for points of friction..

Pretty much up until The West Wing, our leaders had always been portrayed in popular culture as either Machiavellian or dolts. But I thought, "What i….

Trying to guess what the (mass) audience wants and then trying to satisfy that is usually a bad recipe for getting something good..

I think it's up to writers to write stuff that is compelling enough that people want to watch..

I think that if I couldn't write, I would be unemployable..

My resting pulse as a writer is writing idealistically and romantically; aspirationally. My taste lies in quixotic heroes..

I don’t believe there are two sides to every argument. I think the facts are the center. And watching the news abandon the facts in favor of “fairnes….

That's a very real feeling - that I don't have a story to tell. I'm not a pure storyteller. I have a tough time with story..

The thing I know how to do most is write a play. I came up loving plays and learning about plays and writing plays. I actually feel like an outsider ….

Conflict, when used as a device, makes for good television and bad journalism..

Certainly, last year we did an episode about the census and sampling versus a direct statistic. You just said the word 'census', and people fall asle….