Stupid People Surround Themselves With Smart People.

I Had Never Thought Of Doing Television. But My Agent Wanted Me To Meet John Wells, Who Had Had A Lot Of Success Producing Er And China Beach. The Night Before The Meeting, Some Friends Were Over For Dinner And Akiva Goldsman And I Slipped Downstairs To The Basement So We Could Sneak A Cigarette. He Said, "you Know What Would Make A Good Television Series? That." And He Was Pointing At The American President Poster. He Said, "there Doesn't Have To Be A Romance, Just Focus On A Senior Staffer."

Film Doesn't Have To Worry. Movies Are Awesome. There's No War Going On, Theaters Aren't Going To Lose.

Television From Its Inception Had The Number One Goal To Alienate As Few People As Possible. That's Why If You Look At 1950s, 1960s American Sitcoms, The Characters Don't Live Any Place In Particular, Religion Is Never Discussed, Politics Is Never Discussed, You Never Really Know What Anyone's Job Is; Nothing That Could Make These People Seem Different From You Is Ever Discussed.

It's Certainly Easy For Me To Make A Fictional Character Mad About Something. I Can Get Them Angry About Something That I'm Relatively Indifferent About, Just Because I'm Not Educated On It, If I Go To Someone Who Is Educated About It And Is Passionate About It. I Find A Point Of Fiction And Then Give It To Them.

I Got Into Dialogue Because My Parents Began Taking Me To See Plays From When I Was Very Young. Too Young, Often, To Understand The Play I Was Watching: Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf When I Was Nine Years Old; That Championship Season When I Was Ten Years Old. But I Loved The Sound Of Dialogue; It Sounded Like Music To Me And I Wanted To Imitate That Sound.