John Wells

I was very fortunate in all of my career in television to have a lot of things that received a lot of awards recognition.

You have to have wonderful actors for material, particularly difficult material that requires complicated performances.

It is harder to get adult, character-driven material on television than it used to be, but there are lots of other places that you can go to sell it. If you can do it for basic cable or pay cable, we have those outlets.

Both of our children are adopted, and my wife and I didn't go out of ways to find kids that looked like us. We were just happy to have some kids. And people tell me all the time that they look like us, and that's because they learn to smile and laugh and move their head a certain way from studying their parents' faces.

You want to mix acting styles correctly. People approach the work in different ways. You want to make sure no one wants to kill each other because the approach is different.

If you don't have nerves and a little trepidation about any new project, then I don't think you're really alive.

I love working with actors, and it's all been based on my being trained in the theater.

I love writing, and I love the solitude of the writing, in that you're just sitting there creating something from nothing, or a new story for characters you love and care about.

My experience has been that actors always want to be directed.

You can demonize Goldman Sachs all you want, and I'm sure there are reasons to do it. But the real pressure is all of us pressuring the companies for stock returns, and that leads to all kinds of decisions.

I'm a big believer in the value of labor unions and with what collective effort gets people.

I grew up in a family that was very barbed and difficult, and there was a lot of humor. None of it was painless humor. All of it was at someone else's expense. It was kind of always about power.