Nashville is the place where I first realized how impossible it is to look at someone and know what is inside them, what special something they possess.

I love to start characters in a place where you think you know them. We can make all kinds of assumptions about them and think they have no redeeming qualities, but like everyone, they're complex.

One of the reasons I wanted to do a show about Nashville in Nashville was because when I lived here, the hardest thing to go out and hear was country music. Country was taking place inside the studio and it was an export.

One of the magical things about Nashville is just how many incredibly talented people are here and the way they support each other.

When you look around right now, Nashville is kind of going through another changing of guard; you're watching the Martina McBrides and the Faith Hills and all of them that have been the big stars for the last however many years, and the next generation is coming in: Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, those girls.

Whenever I've seen shows or films set here, they just don't feel like the real Nashville to me.