I Think That If I Couldn't Write,

I Love Writing. I'm Not Particularly Comfortable In The Actual World - I'm Much More Comfortable On The Page. So If I Could Have A Life Where I Could Just Slip The Pages Under The Door And Somebody Would Slip Me A Meal Back, Then That Would Be Perfect For Me.

I Got Into Dialogue Because My Parents Began Taking Me To See Plays From When I Was Very Young. Too Young, Often, To Understand The Play I Was Watching: Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf When I Was Nine Years Old; That Championship Season When I Was Ten Years Old. But I Loved The Sound Of Dialogue; It Sounded Like Music To Me And I Wanted To Imitate That Sound.

Good Writers Borrow From Other Writers. Great Writers Steal From Them Outright.

To Use A Basketball Metaphor, West Wing Cast Was A Group That Liked To Pass As Much As They Liked To Shoot.

As An Audience Member, I Like The Sound Of Something That's Been Written - I Like It To Sound Written. And Then, Of Course, You Can't Do It Without The Musicians Who Can Play It.