“I’m terribly afraid of failure. When your identity is wrapped up in writing and you’ve written something that doesn’t work, it’s a tough pill to swallow.”

My preference would have been to not go back on the air after 911, at all until the time felt right but that wasn’t an option.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an actor. I was acting in all the school plays. I went to school for acting. I was really sure that that’s what I wanted to do.

She’s a person; the doctor pronounces her dead, not the news.

I’ve never met anyone who has said, “My goal is to make America mediocre.” That’s a kind of hard-right conservative fallacy.

I’m a playwright. All I care about is the play being good.

I think that if I couldn’t write, I would be unemployable.

My resting pulse as a writer is writing idealistically and romantically; aspirationally. My taste lies in quixotic heroes.

It’s populated by people who, by and large, have terrific communication skills. Every day is an extraordinary day. For me, it was just a great area for storytelling.

To use a basketball metaphor, West Wing cast was a group that liked to pass as much as they liked to shoot.

Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That’s what I look for.

Writing anything, it sorta starts the way you’d build a castle at the beach. You’re just taking your hands and you’re mounting up sand.

This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.

If you feel that strongly about something, you have an obligation to try and change my mind.

Roxy Sorkin, your father just won the Academy Award. I’m going to have to insist on some respect from your guinea pig.

The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one – America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.

I grew up in the theatre. It’s where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection.