I remember watching episodes of 'The Sopranos' and being filled with dread knowing what was coming or anticipating what was coming. I don't think that that's always a bad thing. I think sometimes the audience needs a little catharsis held away from them.

Obviously I'm not from 50's background - I'm from Westport, Connecticut, which is as far away from his background as you can get, right? Growing up in Westport, for a long time I was the only black person living there for miles.

I think it's really cool that someone could have ovaries and the presidency. Growing up, I thought I could never be president because I was black and female. Now I know that's wrong. Within my own lifetime - that's different. Within my lifetime, interracial couples are more common. Within my own lifetime, biracial folks are able to claim that.

I very much want to write about some elements of my own growing up.

I've always been drawn to people who dance to the beat of a different drum; it didn't matter if they were in film or music or fashion.

Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.

The thing about Springsteen, his music, although he's writing about, you know, New Jersey and Asbury Park, all of them places, it's blue-collar towns that, like - it's similar to Newcastle, where I'm from.

It's definitely true that there are a lot of the devices we used on 'Star Trek,' that came out the imagination of the writers, and the creators that are actually in the world today.