I think to an extent every human being needs to be redeemed somewhat or at least needs to look at themselves and say, 'I've made mistakes, I'm off course, I need to change.' Which is probably the hardest thing for a human being to do, and maybe that's why it interests me so.

You can't be a storyteller and a speechwriter at the same time.

It's not any huge secret that I'm an atheist.

Every vampire fiction reinvents vampires to its own needs. You take what you want.

I don't believe in creating exclusionary art.

Ultimately what I end up writing about is helplessness and the flipside of that, empowerment.

You know, I always was an early morning or late night writer. Early morning was my favorite; late night was because you had a deadline. And at four in the morning you make up some of your most absurd jokes.

I am not a fan of referencing your own work when it's in a different universe than what you're doing. That, to me, is a wink at the audience, and winking isn't actually cool when you're not, like, 10.

I'm never interested in movies where you don't care about the people you're watching, and that's my biggest quibble about horror, that kids have gotten stupider and stupider.

There's a lot of anger in the Twitter-verse, as I've discovered. But there's a lot of love.

In TV, there's so much compromise, it does start to grate a bit. But if you're a writer or an actor, it really is the place to be.

The networks have a particular agenda, a particular model and structure. It doesn't have anything to do with content. This is not a dis on them - they are a business model, run by business people.

Actors wait tables, directors work at video stores.

Part of making TV is the process - you just have to churn it out.

Science fiction is like a blender - you can put in any historical experience and take influences from everything you see, read or experience.

I don't think I'm a celebrity. Maybe I'm a cult figure?

A writer is supposed to have anonymity.

Who is to say who is the villain and who is the hero? Probably the dictionary.

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 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 was raised by a hardcore feminist.

Casting is storytelling.

You don't buy a Picasso because you love the frame.

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.

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.

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'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 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.

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 like horror; I like comedy; I like drama; I like action; I like female heroes.

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.

The master plan does not have a master plan. Television ultimately finds itself, and after it finds itself, it finds itself changing.

The fact is some people really love my work, some people not so much, but at the end of the day, I don't want anybody coming out of the movie thinking about me.

My dad would go to work every day and write in a room full of funny people. He enjoyed it. I know great writers who find the process agonising but to me, writing has always been sheer joy.

I always want to make sure I'm telling a story about people that I care about.

The thing with the comics is that you have license to go down every alley your brain can think of.

Wonder Woman isn't Spider-man or Batman. She doesn't have a town, she has a world. That was more interesting to me than a kind of contained, rote superhero franchise.

Especially, I think, living in any fantasy or science fiction world means really understanding what you're seeing and reading really densely on a level that a lot of people don't bother to read.

I always tend to think just left of center, to remove myself from the world by one step. It is very freeing, and it's a particular way of coming at stories and looking at them that I find the most beautiful stuff that I know comes from, ultimately.

I never give up on anything, because you come back around, and suddenly the thing you thought you'd never do is relevant.

I'll always protect what I'm working on. Which is why more and more of it is stuff only I can ruin.

I respect television in a way that some people who came out of film might not.

Shakespeare's language does not require a British accent. It requires a facility with language, and that's all.

I've been doing Shakespeare readings with my friends for years.

I love a good romantic comedy.

I've been in this business for a long while, but it's not like I've been waiting tables. Since I started writing, I've only worked on things that I love. I've had a lot of heartbreak, but you don't become an artist and not expect that.

I'm very much more interested in the created family than I am in actual families.

I usually write things in my head before I ever write them down. When I write it out, usually I've already figured out what it is I'm trying to do.

Soon, I will be 'King of all Hollywoodland.'

I do have screenplays I've written that never saw the light of day, but I don't usually go back to them. When I've told a story, I want to tell another story.