Jimmy Smits Quotes

If you go to pilot then you are probably going to go to series. That's my feeling about it.

I'd read a lot of scripts, and I remember reading 'Orange Is the New Black,' and it was at the head of the pack. I remember thinking, 'Wow, that is really good. I would love to be a part of that.'

I'd love to do another television series. I really love the writing process, and as an actor I really like how much you get to examine in television.

It's kind of interesting when you sign on to a show because you're basically signing on to play a character because you only really see the first episode of the show.

When you're a writer on a show, your job is to write in the show runner's voice, really.

That first episode of 'Newsroom,' the way it just cooked, I thought it was really good.

When I create a TV show, it's so that I can write it. I'm not an empire builder; my writing staff is usually a combination of two kinds of people - experts in the world the show is set in, and young writers who will not be unhappy if they're not writing scripts.

'The West Wing' was an incredible, inspiring show - and one of the reasons I wanted to be a speechwriter.

When I was a staff writer on 'NYPD Blue,' it was truly my job to hear David Milch's voice for that show and to deliver episodes that embodied that voice.

Working in MTV's development team, my days would consist of pitches and deciding which concepts we wanted to buy. We would then develop those into a pilot. Very few ended up making it to a full series, but if they did, I would manage the project alongside the show's creators.

No great television show has ever rested on just one person. They're all about great ensembles and storytelling.

Now that I know what goes into making a pilot, keeping it on the air, and keeping your fans, I'm at a point now where I do a pilot and just hope for the best. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out.

When you're making a television show, it's about the story and arc of the show rather than any particular episode or director.

My characters have to talk, or they're out. They audition in early scenes. If they can't talk, they're given less to do, or thrown out.

With drama, especially, it seems like the bigger the budgets and the edgier the characters, the more interesting they are. We're very lucky because 'Modern Family' wouldn't fit on cable: they'd want us to push it more and be edgier and turn it into something that it's not.

I am one of the new characters in the brand new series of 'Postman Pat.' It has been a joy to do.

I had done a directing producing job before on 'Big Day' and 'Jake in Progress,' and those are two shows where I directed the pilot and stayed with it in series.

Playwrights are naturally wary and protective - God, who's more protective than a playwright? You read a play, the playwright wants to hear from you immediately.

Another show I really enjoyed working on was 'Raising The Bar.' I did four or five episodes of that show.

If I'm going to do television, I wanted that 'North and South' experience. I wanted something that's going to challenge me on a constant basis.

I like the idea of a TV show. You take time to get to know your characters. You can introduce a lot of characters. You don't need your three-action set pieces that you usually need for movies.

I'm a writer; I've worked as much as a writer as I have as an actor, so I was in a script-note session at Imagine for a TV show I wrote that they were producing, and they happened to say, 'You'd be great as Crosby, do you want to do this show we're doing, 'Parenthood?'

Filming a movie is different from a TV show because film is a lot quicker, you get to see the character progress and grow all in one script, and in television, you wait for a weekly update on each character.

Often in television, you read a script and you're amazed that you get the scene given to you.

The good thing about being on a show like 'Justified' is that you stick to the premise, but not necessarily every single word that's on the page.