When we were doing 'Sports Night' and 'West Wing' at the same time, I thought I was the luckiest guy in the world because my two interests were politics and sports.
— Thomas Schlamme
When you're part of history, you don't know it. You're just sort of living your life.
I'm a voyeur. I say that with no embarrassment. If I could have a superpower, being invisible would be it, no question. I'm fascinated by human behavior; observing people and seeing how much story gets told without a lot of dialogue, and how much our brain fills in.
There's always been an ongoing struggle between commerce and art.
I worked as a production assistant on a couple of films, and finally, I got a job at an animation studio as an editor. After that, work begat work. I got into directing music videos and commercials.
I think 'The West Wing' hit at a moment in time that was just right for that show.
'Survivor' was, to me, an absolute reaction that the audience was having to the sort of staid nature of narrative drama on television.
I'm engaged: I'm interested in other people. I think that's just as important as knowing how to do the job.
