The master plan does not have a master plan. Television ultimately finds itself, and after it finds itself, it finds itself changing.
— Joss Whedon
Running a TV show is always running a TV show; it's never not running a TV show.
My first gig ever was writing looplines for a movie that had already been made. You know, writing lines over somebody's back to explain something, to help make a connection, to add a joke, or to just add babble because the people are in frame and should be saying something.
I have abused language. I love it, and I abuse it... I don't write just to be clever. But sometimes I do. And if you don't have an understanding of the language, then the way in which it's bent doesn't actually register.
I have a pathological fear of confrontation. I'm working on that.
I spent a ton of time alone. I was raised by a feminist; I had a terrifying father and oppressively scary and mean brothers. We had a farm. The rule was between breakfast and lunch you weren't allowed to make a sound.
Writers are completely out of touch with reality. Writers are a crazy person. We create conflict - for a living. We do this all the time, sometimes on a weekly basis; we create horrible, incredible circumstances and then figure a way out of them. That's what we do.
If somebody is in a story, they need to be there for a reason, and not just to set up somebody else's story.
Why anybody gets my sense of humor I never know, but I do know that when they do, I keep them as close as I possibly can.
Casting is storytelling.
Those of us who write spend our entire lives in an endless English class.
It's only recently women got to be action heroes on TV. Progress is slow, and often non-existent. There's plenty of cool comics with female characters... But all it takes is one Catwoman to set the cause back a decade.
I tend to tell stories that have a lot of momentum; it's not like 'and then months later...' I like things where the momentum of one action rolls into the next one so everything is the sum of that.
A writer is supposed to have anonymity.
Science fiction is like a blender - you can put in any historical experience and take influences from everything you see, read or experience.
I'm not big on regret; I don't spend a lot of time on it.
Actors wait tables, directors work at video stores.
I've often said there's no such thing as a track record in TV. I seen people who created things much more successful than mine treated like dirt.
I like horror; I like comedy; I like drama; I like action; I like female heroes.
Most of the dialogue in 'Speed' is mine, and a bunch of the characters. That was actually pretty much a good experience. I have quibbles. I also have the only poster left with my name still on it. Getting arbitrated off the credits was un-fun.
I was never a games night guy, but at some point, social interaction starts to freak me out. So when there's a point, it's easier for me to see the people I love and hang out and try to have fun.
I don't have a ton of enemies. I get along with people pretty well when I'm not annoying them to death.
I've had so much success. I had something to say, I got to say it, people heard it, and they agreed. That's every artist's dream. That's the brass ring.
I still believe that even though 'The Empire Strikes Back' is better in innumerable ways than 'Star Wars,' 'Star Wars' wins.
You don't buy a Picasso because you love the frame.
Twelve-year-old me wanted to do everything: act and sing and paint and dance.
Never sit at a table you can't walk away from.
I was raised by a hardcore feminist.
Who is to say who is the villain and who is the hero? Probably the dictionary.
I am a fan of sequels even though they are inevitably awful.
I don't think I'm a celebrity. Maybe I'm a cult figure?
I'm a science fiction geek from birth - that's just who I am.
When people say to me, 'Why are you so good at writing at women?' I say, 'Why isn't everybody?'
I designed 'Buffy' to be an icon, to be an emotional experience, to be loved in a way that other shows can't be loved. Because it's about adolescence, which is the most important thing people go through in their development, becoming an adult.
Personally, the NSA collecting data on me freaks me out. It totally freaks me out. And yet I'm from the generation that wants to put a GPS in their kids so I always know where they are.
The people who feel the most strongly about something will turn on you the most vociferously if they feel you've let them down.
I just love language. I mean, I love it. I love stage directions. Any opportunity to write. I hadn't written in so long, I get very crazy and miserable. I - it's like not seeing my kids: I can't do it for very long.
I always believe in just have as much fun as you can so that when you're in the part that you hate, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, that you're close to finished.
I didn't study writing. I didn't write anything substantial until I got to California.
I don't tend to write straight dramas where real life just impinges. But because I don't, when I do, it is very interesting to slap people in the face with just an absolute of life.
I never write anything without humor, just because I like humor, but at the same time, it is a way for anything fantastical to become relatable.
The way a musical can make us feel is unlike anything else, in song and particularly in dance. I think people fly through plate-glass windows when they get shot because movies don't have dance scenes any more. This is what we do instead.
Every kid who hated grownups becomes a grownup. Well, except the ones who died.
I never wanted to take a job because I needed money, and I never have.
I didn't watch a lot of American television growing up. I just liked to read a lot and watch movies - movies, movies, and more movies. My family used to make fun of me because I'd like every movie I saw.
I love all genres. The only thing I get stymied by is the Family Drama. I don't necessarily know how to approach that.
Sarah Michelle Gellar's made some really good choices. She's had some bad breaks. She goes with the independent, interesting young filmmakers and then they get slammed, like 'Southland Tales.' I'm proud of what she's trying to do. It's hard.
The only way to real mature love is to get past the tropes of what we consider 'romance.'
Part of making TV is the process - you just have to churn it out.
Oddly enough, I never studied writing. I studied almost everything except writing.
