David Mamet was great to work with. He was everything that I thought he would be as a director. He's incredibly articulate, an easy collaborator. Extraordinarily knowledgeable about film and writing.
Neal Stephenson is great. He can write about a white wall for six pages, and it sounds fascinating. I read the whole 'Baroque Cycle' and 'Cryptonomicon.'
I built a studio in L.A. for me and my brother to just write every single day. And it's been great, man.
I try not to picture a reader when I'm writing. It's like trying to make a great table but not picturing anybody sitting at it.
I do feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentence and then another, you end up with a good story.
I try to write something that would interest anybody and keep them turning the page. You must have a plot and good storyline.
I've never been good at rock'n'roll songs, anyway; either I'm blessed or I'm cursed, but whatever I write comes out sounding old.
It's hard to draw clear lines between writing and life and I don't think it is necessary to or necessarily good to.
When people say to me, 'Why are you so good at writing at women?' I say, 'Why isn't everybody?'
I've hung out in the writer's room a few times, but the fact is we've got such a good writing staff, I don't want to get my peanut butter fingerprints on anything.
With 'Attachments,' my goal was to write a really good romantic comedy. I wanted the reader to be smiling throughout.
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.
I've never dated anyone in Hollywood - or anyone famous, for that matter. I don't know that I'm ever gonna write a song that you will know who it's about.
I have no plans for a future Jemima Shore mystery, but would write one tomorrow if a good idea came to me.
I wanted to write a story about a future where everyone has a secret identity, in part because the Internet no longer exists.
I write as a matter of need - seven books and God knows how many short stories before anyone published me.
I envisioned that as my life: staying in academia to make a living and then taking summers off to write my novels.
Basically, I'm motivated to write about sociopolitical issues as well as relationships. I think those themes have stayed with me throughout my life.
Let me say that I absolutely loved writing 'A Common Life,' because it was a book about love.
I'm lucky because the strongest emotion I have ever felt is being in love, and that definitely informs my writing.
Someone asked me a while back, 'Why do artists always write about love?' And I was like, 'Love is the coolest thing that's ever happened in the world.'
