Anything we put on screen has gone through massive changes. That's always part of the process.

Write your first draft with your heart. Rewrite with your head.

Some skeptics believe religious people are religious because they fear Hell. It's about as fair as saying skeptics are skeptics because they fear the ridicule of modern society.

The good man is free, even if he is a slave. The evil man is a slave, even if he is a king.

Their attempts to make sense of the world had carried heat but little light.

I can't see that it's wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law.

You know when a script is good but you don't have any knowledge how visually it is going to look. When this [Happy Valley] came out and I saw the first episode and thought it was terrific.

Look. Let’s just say he’s in Tabitha’s line of work. Okay? (Selena) Ladies’ lingerie? He hardly looks the type to sell that. (Sunshine)

She who desires peace must see, suffer and be silent.

He is already past the high point in his life and coming down on the other side. By next week he'll be nostalgia. He's 12 years old, and it's over for him.

My time in the Obama administration turned out to be a deeply disillusioning experience.

I am a citizen of the world, and I have met, in my time, with so many different sorts of virtue, that I am puzzled, in my old age, to say which is the right sort and which is the wrong.