Noah Hawley Quotes

In television writing, even if you're running the writers room, it's a writers room.

I'm very involved in the writing on every level.

Writing for television is completely different from movie scriptwriting. A movie is all about the director's vision, but television is a writer's medium.

I don't know much about writing a show or being a show-runner on a show, but I can only imagine that when you first cast a show and you first do a pilot, there are so many components that you're throwing into the mix and you're not sure how they're going to develop.

Writers are in the entertainment business, and it gives me lots of pleasure to entertain my readers.

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.

A script writer usually manipulates his characters in accordance to the script.

My role on 'Silicon Valley' was so small that I didn't have a lot of influence anyway in the show. There are four guys who really write that show and run that show and then six or eight hanging out in a room kicking in a few bits.

Honestly, the life of a serial character on television, I'd love to write an essay about it.

What is absolutely true is that any good [Television] series has a specific voice. And I think that voice is almost exclusively the domain of the executive producer. . . . As a staff writer you're not being called upon to be the great creative person. You're sort of called upon to understand the characters and their voices and put them through certain paces.

There's probably a little more creative freedom in cable versus network, a little less of a committee looking over everyone's shoulder, but it depends on the network; it depends on the show; it depends on who the head writer or show runner is and what track record they have.

I've been telling anybody who would listen that I wanted to do a series for the last 10 years. But I wouldn't do it if I was just another cop pushing bad guys up against the wall.

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'm consistently blown away by 'Mad Men.' Having spent so much time in the writers' room, I'm cursed in that anytime I watch something, I'm always calculating what the writers are up to.

I won't name any names, but I've done a couple of shows where once the pilot got picked up, the creators openly said, 'I have no idea where we're going.'

I'm not a playwright.

I have less to do with 'The Simpsons' every season, but I stick my nose in here and there. Basically, it's just trying to keep the characters consistent and making sure the show has a soul.

When you decide you want to become a television writer, you naively assume it's going to be like the writers on the old 'Dick Van Dyke Show.' You'll write something and they'll just put it on TV. But what you quickly discover is that American network television is television by committee.

Writing for a soap - writing for 25 characters day in, day out - is one of the most difficult jobs in Hollywood.

Every so often, it's time to make a change with a showrunner; you evaluate the creative and how the show is run, how the writing staff works.

So I had all the names, three names, and that's good to have on a soap.

When I write a screenplay - and I think this is true for a lot of people - you direct the movie. That's what writing a screenplay is.

We start out talking about the story, trying to figure out who is who and what should happen, taking notes the whole time. Then I do a rough layout of the issue, showing what happens on each page. Then we discuss that some more.

In my free time, I'd written 'Sammy's Hill' - it had started out as a play. I just did it for myself.

One of the things I really love about TV is this symbiotic relationship you can get between the writers and the actors, and the characters start to come to life because you start to collaborate.