I don't read a lot of fiction, but one of my favorite authors is William Kennedy; his books, to me, almost read like historical dramas because the mythologies are so detailed as he wove fiction with the factual history of Albany.

I don't think or write from big ideals.

I've been riding motorcycles since my early 20s, and I loved the hipness of the subculture.

You have to be driven by something greater than you, where you don't surrender, and you commit to something like that.

What I learned in 'Sons' is that I would come in with a blueprint of a season and how it would go, and I realized that the looser my grip was, the better it became because the story found itself. Things happened as I wanted them to in terms of the bigger mile markers, but the fun part was I never knew how we would get there.

I like to take fictitious characters and circumstances and wedge them into a real world.

Here's the deal with 'Bastard.' I loved that show, and for me, it was such a palate cleanser, going from writing urban vernacular and crime to, essentially, iambic pentameter. I loved the mythology of that world based on history, but what it came down to was money.

For me, money is about respect, and that is really important to me.

I'm not, like, a gregarious guy. I don't walk into a room and want to engage people. I'm just not wired that way. One on one, I'm fine.

I wish I had tougher skin, but I don't.