When I talk to film students, I always say, 'Buy the DVDs and listen to the commentaries, look at the making of, look at the behind-the-scenes,' because that's such a great learning tool.

For a film, when you condense, you don't want to keep going back to the same setting over and over.

People are nervous about their kids, and they're worried about the disintegration of families and the type of media culture they're living in.

If you decide to tell a kid that looks don't matter, she can prove you wrong every day. Because they see it everywhere. That is age-old, going back to the Greeks, but now we're bombarded nonstop.

Nature uses human imagination to lift her work of creation to even higher levels.

Character is character and voice is voice, which translates nicely from writing novels to writing TV. But the process is different. You have a writer's room, people pitch you jokes and you collaborate.

Just because you're a star on television doesn't mean that you can be a music phenomenon or an artist. You have to have the material to back it, and it's all about hit songs. I can name you every 'Idol' winner and why they didn't go on to have success - their songs. The ones who have - their songs.

Imagination decides everything.