The threat to free television. The reason television is free is because it is a life support system for commercials. That fundamental aspect is about to change.

I don't think you can really make television based on what you think audiences want. You can only make stories that you like, because you have to watch it so many times.

TIVO executives stand up and say, 'Well, we're not getting rid of commercials, but we are letting them fast forward, because people like commercials, and if they see one that they like they stop and watch it.' I mean, please.

I do love television. But the business is accelerating and people are not getting the chance to fail.

The ad revenues still go up because nothing dependably delivers the eyeballs that successful series do.

Television screens saturated with commercials promote the utopian and childish idea that all problems have fast, simple, and technological solutions. You must banish from your mind the naive but commonplace notion that commercials are about products. They are about products in the same sense that the story of Jonah is about the anatomy of whales.