A Hero Would Die For His Country,

Make No Mistake About It, You Are Dumb. You’re A Group Of Incredibly Well-educated Dumb People. I Was There. We All Were There. You’re Barely Functional. There Are Some Screw-ups Headed Your Way. I Wish I Could Tell You That There Was A Trick To Avoiding The Screw-ups, But The Screw-ups, They’re A-coming For Ya. It’s A Combination Of Life Being Unpredictable, And You Being Super Dumb.

There's A Great Tradition In Storytelling That's Thousands Of Years Old, Telling Stories About Kings And Their Palaces, And That's Really What I Wanted To Do.

When I Was A Kid, I Wanted To Be An Actor. I Was Acting In All The School Plays. I Went To School For Acting. I Was Really Sure That That's What I Wanted To Do.

Pretty Much Up Until The West Wing, Our Leaders Had Always Been Portrayed In Popular Culture As Either Machiavellian Or Dolts. But I Thought, "what If We Show A Group Of People Who Are Highly Competent, They're Going To Lose As Much As They Win, But We're Going To Understand That They Wake Up Every Morning Wanting To Do Good?" That Was Really The Spirit Behind The West Wing.

As A Dramatist, You're Looking For Points Of Friction.