Plotlines Quotes

Oh yeah, I grew up with comics. You know, I always like to describe myself as a 'narrative junkie.' I love novels, I love comics, movies, TV. If it's a good story, I'm hooked.

I don't know what to say about Jill Marie. The girls on 'Girlfriends' were all my babies.

Films and television and even comic books are churning out vast quantities of fictional narratives, and the public continues to swallow them up with great passion. That is because human beings need stories.

I really enjoy 'Mad Men,' but I'm hugely into 'Homeland.' The characters are very well drawn and complex.

I love 'Modern Family;' I don't exactly watch it when it's on, but I try to catch up on it when I can; it's one of my favorite shows.

We got kind of into a rhythm at 'Parks' because there were so many characters that we had an A story, a B story, and a C story just about every episode. So by the middle of that show's run, we always had three stories, and it worked really well.

Actually, I find it great fun to develop family series with lots of characters.

I'd run the gamut of emotions on 'Falcon Crest.' When the show folded, I was ready to move on.

I read mostly fiction, a lot of 19th-century novels.

'The Sopranos' all came down to the writing. I wouldn't have been on for as long as I was if the writing weren't so good.

I grew up on 'Lost.' I was 17 when I started, and I did it for four or five years, on and off.

Matthew Wiener on 'Mad Men' writes the entire series before they start shooting, and if you have that, then what you can do with character and story is not at all unlike what you can do in a novel.

But I've never tried writing an episode of 'EastEnders', even as an exercise.

Whenever we start a new TV series, there's also a lot of question marks, and part of that is finding who you are.

It's the imagination that is involved in sci-fi, and fantasy is what draws me to it. Stories, everything.

Fiction is about small ambition, small failed ambition, small disappointed hope.

That's why, when Alias came along, I knew I'd be OK if the show was on for five or six years because the writing was so good and the creative team was so strong.

One of the ingredients that made Cheers work so well was the great ensemble of actors we had. That's the case with any good series.

On 'Prison Break,' I tended to talk a lot! They gave me a lot of fun words to say. There were always these great mouthfuls of words that would fall out!

With all of our big-hit shows - like 'Big Bang Theory,' and even 'How I Met Your Mother' - when they first started, you have multiple characters to service, and you want to make sure that the audience has a chance to get the concept, get the emotional arc, and really engage with the relationships.

Besides, most of the books I like involve people I could never play in a million years.

In my head, at least, the business of spinning stories has no closing time. Twists in my characters' lives, glimpses of their secrets, obstacles to their dreams... all arrive unbidden when I'm getting cash at the ATM, walking my son to camp, singing a hymn at a wedding.

The real world is the fantasy writer's scrapbook. Real history, real geography, real customs and religions are all invaluable sources of guidance and inspiration.

The first season of 'Community' stumbled a bit because the plotlines too often veered into realism, but that is not a problem anymore. Not when prize episodes concern a campuswide blanket fort, or a secret garden with a magic trampoline.

I don't watch daily soap. I've never seen my shows as well except for the scenes in which I really want to improve something or correct something.