I was very inspired by what now looks like a golden age of television drama in the early to mid '90s--the first year of 'N.Y.P.D. Blue,' first few years of 'X-Files,' and 'Homicide,' which I consider one of the top three television shows ever created, ... OZ.

I'm usually known for having the ugliest casts, so it's been kind of refreshing to go, 'OK, hey, look, she's great looking.' That's great.

I said no. I told him I found the ruling incomprehensible. He said the censor would do the edit.

[Series with political content tend to age badly, and Cowen and Lipman know a thing or two about dated television -- the men, who began their work and home lives together in 1971 at a playwrights' conference, wrote An Early Frost, the first TV movie about AIDS, which aired in 1985.] You never know if something's going to hold up or fall apart in 20 years, ... It will mark a certain point in time. I hope as time goes on it will be seen as accurate.

She defies all the norms of network television. Traditionally, your lead character in a drama - especially a woman - isn't riddled with flaws. She's someone you like, someone you look up to. But Meredith? Oh man, she's a mess.

The central drama of our age is how the Western nations and the Asian peoples are to find a tolerable basis of co-existence