Langston Hughes Quotes

I've always written a little bit. I mean, I've written screenplays, and I've doctored my dialogue for years, and I've written speeches - I was a speechwriter on 'The West Wing,' so I like that kind of thing. But I never really thought I'd write a book.

I've been writing full-time since about 1984 - mostly magazine features and columns.

I spent 20 years of my career primarily being a writer for hire.

I did six series for the BBC and that was enough. I've been writing for ten years, which is more challenging artistically.

I had been writing professionally since 1988.

I have written a bunch of scripts that have not gotten produced, much more so early in my career than later.

I come out of TV. I come out of live television, BBC drama: that's where I started first as a designer, then a director. Then I went independent TV, then television advertising.

I've been writing full-time since 1978.

Writing was my first occupation, begun at age 23.

My first writing job was with a company called TheatreworksUSA.

My day job is making TV shows.

When I left Yale, I was prepared to write anything.

So I went out and bought myself a copy of the Writer and Artist Yearbook, bought lots of magazines and got on the phone and talked to editors about ideas for stories. Pretty soon I found myself hired to do interviews and articles and went off and did them.

I could see no position to say, 'I'm going to make a living as a writer.' But I went to classes for it; I read every play in 'Theater' magazine. I saw the second acts of everything on Broadway - I had a job as a CBS usher in New York City, and on my way home every night, I'd see what shows I could get into.

I've been lucky enough that in the U.K., I've done shows that have aired once a week. I make a show there that runs seasonally, and we make one episode a week, and that is great - the value of time. You can really think and finesse what you want to do.

When you work in television, you're in the writer's room all the time.

I'm interested in producing more TV shows.

I've virtually grown up in the television industry.

Television was almost a natural for me.

I was excited when I first got the call, when I heard BBC Four were making a biography and they were interested in me being a part of it.

I actually was doing ghostwriting jobs since I was 17 years old, so I've been supporting myself off and on with writing jobs for almost 10 years. But those were all things that I did off the books. And now I do a lot more writing on the books.

I figured I’d probably write 50 scripts in my life. Out of those 50, I figured maybe five would be produced, and that maybe one or two would be successful. So I always kind of expected I’d write at least one successful film in my life. [...] The way it all came together was kind of like Murphy's law in reverse—I don’t expect that kind of experience again any time soon.

Local television shows do not, in general, supply make-up artists. The exception to this is Los Angeles, an unusually generous city in this regard, since they also provide this service for radio appearances.

Television is a runaway train that you have to get on for nine months of the year. But at the same time, it has a wonderful immediacy.

You can write better about a place you've seen for yourself. You don't have to have been there - I've sure written about places I've never seen - but it does help.