Producer

Nothing is a matter of course when you get to do your own thing. It's always a gift that can stop giving and probably will.

I always think a successful television series is the best job because it gives you community, it doesn't demand temporary insanity the way movies do, and you can be almost a normal person.

Great things that can happen when you're doing a movie.

Kids in general make things fresh and alive and they have this great appreciation for, Holy mackerel, we're making a movie!

I love it if comedy reflects real life because to me it's more reassuring that we'll get through.

It's craziness to see yourself as damaged goods, so I was the goofy kid who'd stop a strange adult and say, 'Do you know how to get to Palm Avenue?' They'd say no, and I'd say, 'You go two blocks and turn right. You can't miss it.'

I always loved writing, but never considered that I could do it professionally.

I was at CBS News on a fluke. I replaced somebody who was on vacation. I worked as a copy boy, then became a news writer.

Kids in general make things fresh and alive and they have this great appreciation for, Holy mackerel, we're making a movie!

When it comes to being confused about what to do about life, that's been me and will always be me.

With music, you can put sophisticated thoughts in a child's head - it gives you a whole new avenue to express ideas.

I came to 20th Century Fox to do movies, and then they started a network, and they asked me to do a show as part of their starting what became the Fox network.

I've done it with Broadcast News-where there was no finish line, there was no agenda that I had to move all the characters to this point, that I was sort of open to what happens.

I have a rule in research: The third time you hear something, it's generally true.

A lot of things just aren't true any more.

I came to 20th Century Fox to do movies, and then they started a network, and they asked me to do a show as part of their starting what became the Fox network.

I was only in college, unfortunately, for, um, a year. I think my major was public relations, and I had no idea what it meant except it seemed maybe attainable.

When you work alongside somebody day in and day out, the relationships tend to be wonderful: they're lifelong.

You become so obsessed, and that's not a bad thing for a movie. Serve it with that sense that it's the whole world.

I had no road map for fatherhood; I had no personal history to draw from.