In the old days... it was a basic cardinal fact that producers didn't have opinions. When I was producing natural history programmes I didn't use them as vehicles for my own opinion. They were factual programmes.

One of my producers said this business is like a hamster on that little wheel thing that goes around and around. You may have a great day and get great ratings but then you've got another show to do - whatever moment of success or happiness you have you've got to keep grinding it out for the next day.

I've been watching more American TV because of all the great TV series that have come out in the last five to 10 years. I'm a 'Sopranos' fan I'm a 'Wire' fan I'm a 'Mad Men' fan. I'm a 'Deadwood' fan. It makes me optimistic for the future of storytelling on TV that producers are willing to take that kind of jump.

It's funny because '1600 Penn' was the first time I really started to read the reviews because I am an executive producer and I wanted to see what people were enjoying and not enjoying as a means to an end right?

I've never let producers tell me what to do. Even when I was making television I always did what I wanted to do and if I couldn't I didn't do it. It was a freedom that these days young directors starting out don't have.

Food was always a big part of my life. My grandfather was one of 14 kids and his parents had a pasta factory so as a kid he and his siblings would sell pasta door to door. After he became a movie producer he opened up De Laurentiis Food Stores - one in Los Angeles and one in New York.

Animals that we eat are raised for food in the most economical way possible and the serious food producers do it in the most humane way possible. I think anyone who is a carnivore needs to understand that meat does not originally come in these neat little packages.

I have come close to producing films. But generally by the time they hit the screen there's about 50 people with producer credits so what's the point. I usually find scripts I like with no money attached and take them to producers that I know and try to raise finance.

We were delighted to have Nigel as a producer. The only problem is that Nigel is so famous that he seems to dominate most interviews without being there.

He makes me laugh Mick! He tended to turn up when we were having lunch and entertain us all. He bought an Enigma machine! I've never worked with a producer who was more famous than everyone put together.

There were all us baby boomers who had a grammar school education started to learn then went on the pill the whole thing and so there are today a lot more women writers editors producers and so a lot more women's stories. God the BBC's practically run by women.

I wear a lot of different hats - from writer to producer and artist. We all do 5 or 6 jobs everything from creating our own graphic design to actually recording and the whole bit.

I'm the one who's dating the craft-service guy instead of the producer. Plus if a producer is going to date a hot young thing I'm probably not the first person on their list - the weird quirky funny girl.

We would make songs and the producers said we should play it for my dad. I was kind of scared I didn't know what to think cuz we were just joking around.

I mean my dad's a television producer and I knew I could get a job as an assistant or a reader with one of his friends but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do.

When somebody who makes movies for a living - either as an actor writer producer or director - lives to be a certain age you have to admire them. It is an act of courage to make a film - a courage for which you are not prepared in the rest of life. It is very hard and very destructive. But we do it because we love it.

A strategy is something like an innovative new product globalization taking your products around the world be the low-cost producer. A strategy is something you can touch you can motivate people with be number one and number two in every business. You can energize people around the message.

Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body - the producers and consumers themselves.

After 'Freaks and Geeks ' I dealt with several producers who wanted to cover up all my beauty marks every single mole on my body. They tried to cover them on my first two episodes of 'Dawson's Creek ' and it just looked ridiculous so I had to put my foot down. But it's not something I'm insecure about.

The beauty of having a producer is that you have someone who says You're finished.

My agent says that I'm a 'repeat business guy.' If you hire me to come do a movie I'll be on time know all my material be ready to go have a good attitude. I'm here to work so I get hired over and over again by the same producers. If you just be a team player on set you can work so much more often.

I am more a friend of art than a producer of painting.

What turns me on about the digital age what excited me personally is that you have closed the gap between dreaming and doing. You see it used to be that if you wanted to make a record of a song you needed a studio and a producer. Now you need a laptop.