If you had told me in the Seventies and Eighties that TV would be as edgy or edgier than most films, and more intelligently written than most films, I wouldn't have believed it. There's great stuff out there.
Luckily, I have great agents who are sending me out for great stuff.
It's not that I sit down and write great stuff without thinking, not at all. Most of it is terrible. But the stuff that feels fun and fresh to me tends to happen fairly unthinkingly.
If you sing beautifully about nothing, no one will listen. If you sing badly about great stuff, no one will listen. Ideas are everywhere, but my theory is that a writer doesn't just think of an idea: they perform them.
A lot of charities spend a million dollars on a fundraiser to make $15,000. It's a social swirl. They do some great stuff and then - it's called mission drift. It becomes more about the parties.
Check your ego at the door. The ego can be the great success inhibitor. It can kill opportunities, and it can kill success.
Without an open-minded mind, you can never be a great success.
But I like not these great success of yours; for I know how jealous are the gods.
I gave Joss Whedon and Judd Apatow their first writing jobs, as well as many other untried writers who went on to great success.
I've been with some great teams and had good wins and great success at certain periods of time in my career.
Apple is a failure because they missed social? Nobody would say that, because they are having great success.
I've had great success being a total idiot.
I don't think I've had any great success in predicting politics or social change, nor have I really tried.
My father was an immigrant who literally walked across Europe to get out of Russia. He fought in World War I. He was wounded in action. My father was a great success even though he never had money. He was a very determined man, a great role model.
I had great success with Ivan Lendl. Was he a perfect coach? No. Was he a very good coach? Yeah. He had some very strong qualities and some things that weren't so good.
I was a tomboy. And one of my first recollections of great success was playing baseball with the boys.
'Dancing with the Stars' is a great format for us. It's a format we license from the BBC, so that can't travel for us, but we consider it a great success. 'Desperate Housewives,' on the other hand, a huge success for us internationally. 'Missing' has actually sold to 80 territories before it's even gone on the air.
I think people in Botswana are pleased that my books paint a positive picture of their lives and portray the country as being very special. They've made a great success of their country, and the people are fed up with the constant reporting of only the problems and poverty of the continent. They welcome something which puts the positive side.
My wife Elizabeth and I started The Really Terrible Orchestra for people like us who are pretty hopeless musicians who would like to play in an orchestra. It has been a great success. We give performances; we've become the most famous bad orchestra in the world.
With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.
