Nic Pizzolatto Quotes

In television, the writer-creator-showrunner is embraced as the creative mind.

Writer/directors are, for me, the most inspiring people to work for because they are the person on set that knows the answer to all the questions. They have the most invested in the project because they've been with it from conception.

The greatest thing that you have when you're a showrunner is this opportunity to create worlds.

In television, the 60-minute series, 'The Wire' and 'Mad Men' and so on, the writer is the primary creative artist.

For a writer, working in television is an incredibly rewarding medium. You're in charge of all aspects of production and get to see your vision come to life every week.

Something I've really been wanting to do, ever since 'Six Feet Under' ended, was create my own version of this idealized writer's room as well as the ideal family.

I feel terrible for directors of TV because all the episodes have to look the same. They make a great series for five or six years, and then when it's canceled, they can't break out on their own.

I'm currently trying to direct my own material.

All the films I do, I write the scripts, I direct.

I was running the show on 'United States of Tara' and 'How To Make It In America' where I could say, 'Okay, I'm in charge of everything now.' But it still wasn't my show.

All the director wants is their idea of the movie to be believed in.

'The Indian Runner' was easy. It had been incubating in me for eight years, and by the time I sat down to write the thing, I had all the pictures in my head.

Working with HBO was an opportunity to experience creative freedom and 'long-form development' that filmmakers didn't have a chance to do before the emergence of shows like 'The Sopranos.'

The director in TV and the writer and the creator are working very much hand in hand.

I'm trying my hand at writing. I'm writing a couple of projects for HBO, a half hour comedy and a miniseries.

I think it's always good for the author to stay a good cattle prod's distance from the actual moviemaking.

TV is a writer's medium.

Television is certainly a writers-led medium. They're the ones who are there, they're the ones that are conferencing or whatever, with directors coming and going.

The first comedy screenplay that I wrote was Animal House and I always thought I could and should be a director but no one was about to give me that opportunity on Animal House.

I honestly never wanted to direct. It was only when I started to work on 'Alexander the Great' that I realized I had to direct. I saw something so specifically in my mind, I could not leave it to someone else.

The idea of being a show runner was very attractive to me, to create and control something.

I'll always love movies. But there's something I love very much about TV, when you shoot episodes while other episodes are still being written.

A film goes through so many hands, that by the time it's done, it might not resemble what you thought you were making.

With network shows, writers can be so protective of every syllable.

In the TV world, we are seeing a lot more power going to the writer. I sense it is a writer's medium.