Director

I try to tell the best story, and the story that has some heart and some genuine terror and some social commentary and some comedy and some romance and some sex and some violence.

I really love storytelling, and I love the stories as they reveal themselves. It's an incredibly nourishing process; it's probably the closest I come to having a religion.

Directing is physically exciting because there's a ticking clock, you're working with people, it's very social, it's very enjoyable.

I think sexuality is a window into someone's soul.

I am so spoiled. I cannot watch a show where it gets interrupted for ads. I have to TiVo it and skip through the ads, because the culture of advertising is so false and phony that I just... ugh, you know?

Death is a companion for all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we're aware of it or not, and it's not necessarily a terrible thing.

You cannot hold a child accountable to the same standards that you hold an adult accountable to.

There is a fetishization of victimization in our culture. And I just am not interested in victimhood.

When I go home, the last thing I want to do is read about the popular lore of vampires.

'Six Feet Under' was about repressing our deepest, most primal impulses, and 'True Blood' is about giving full sway to them all the time. In a way they are like yin and yang.

As a culture, we are not comfortable with mortality. We do not accept it the way other cultures do. We cling to youth, and we don't want to die. It's like, 'Well, too bad, we do.'

I think all writers are armchair psychologists to some degree or another, and I think a character's sexuality is fascinating. It's a great way to really get at the root of their identity, because it's such a personal thing.

Life is too mysterious to try to map it out. I've certainly lived long enough to know it will take you places you never thought it would take you - and some of those places are kind of wonderful.

My own belief is that people can come back from anything. It doesn't mean that it won't come at a huge cost.

I'm not saying that being gay is what defines me, but at the same time, if you feel like you have to hide it, then it becomes what defines you. You keep it hidden, and the secret becomes you.

I'm a Buddhist, so one of my biggest beliefs is, 'Everything changes, don't take it personally.'

I am a little suspicious of industry paradigms. I feel like so many movies and TV shows feel so familiar because of over-reliance on these paradigms.

I'm from the South, so while I personally find it impossible to live there, I still have a fondness for it as a geographical region.

Vampires are total sexual metaphors; there's just no way around that.

You know, I'm gay and I grew up being aware of that at a very early age, in a fairly repressed family.