“There’s a great tradition in storytelling that’s thousands of years old, telling stories about kings and their palaces, and that’s really what I wanted to do.”

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.

I’m a registered Republican, I only seem liberal because I believe that hurricanes are caused by high barometric pressure and not gay marriage.

There are television critics, movie critics, and theater critics too who I like and who I follow and I get genuinely bummed when they don’t like something that I’ve written because I usually agree with them.

A hero would die for his country, but he’d much rather live for it.

I don’t believe there are two sides to every argument. I think the facts are the center. And watching the news abandon the facts in favor of “fairness” is what’s troubling to me.

I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue. But when I’m writing, the way the words sound is as important to me as what they mean.

If I get an idea for a series that I really like, I’m sure I won’t be able to resist coming back and doing it.

I have a lot of respect for people who are great at ad-libbing, and for writers and directors who are able to create a scene in which that works.

Just to clarify the division of labor on the show, I write the show and Alan [Poul] does everything else.

Conflict, when used as a device, makes for good television and bad journalism.

There are no Asian movie stars

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

Never argue with a drunk or a fool.

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

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

Decisions are made by those who show up. Don’t ever forget that you’re a citizen of this world.

Washington is an endless series of mock palaces clearly built for clerks.

For serenity, always prefer the cottage to the palace!

Sleep is a god too proud to wait in palaces, and yet so humble too as not to scorn the meanest country cottages.

Where are the numerous constructions erected by Agrippa, of which only the Pantheon remains? Where are the splendorous palaces of the emperors?

By reason of his elegance, he resembles an image painted in a palace, though he is as majestic as the palace itself.

There are good hearts to serve men in palaces as in cottages.

It’s harder for a leader to be born in a palace than to be born in a cabin.

Every wave is a water sprite who swims in the current, each current is a path which snakes towards my palace, and my palace is fluidly built at the bottom of the lake, in the triangle of earth, fire and water.