Quotes

Sometimes we get frustrated ourselves and decide it's time to download a big chunk of mythology. And then the audience says, 'I find this confusing and alienating and too weird.' So then we pull back, and they say, 'You're not giving us enough'. - on trying to satisfy the audience of "Lost

On the 3rd season Lost premiere: Here's what you won't see: Globetrotters, zombies, the guy Meredith Grey didn't choose, coconut radios, Laura Palmer, Jack laughing, Desmond running naked through the jungle, the Others' annual talent show, buttons, timers, electromagnetic anomalies, Cylons, cyclones, or clones, nanobots, Captain Jack Sparrow, and time travel.

I am willing to hold firm for considerably longer than three months because this is a fight for the livelihoods of a future generation of writers, whose work will never "air," but instead be streamed, beamed or zapped onto a tiny chip. (on the WGA strike)

I will probably be dragged through the streets and burned in effigy if fans have to wait another year for "Lost" to come back. And who could blame them? Public sentiment may have swung toward the guild for now, but once the viewing audience has spent a month or so subsisting on "America's Next Hottest Cop" and "Celebrity Eating Contest," I have little doubt that the tide will turn against us. (on effects of the WGA strike)

The jumping off point for Prometheus (2012) for me is this: If somebody believed in God and you presented scientific evidence that directly contradicted that belief, what would he do? I find that question tremendously compelling. (Discover magazine, June 2012)

My wife and I have had a number of impassioned debates about what I believe is not a hypothetical question: Would you download your consciousness into a box if it meant you could continue going on? That sounds appealing to me. But the question becomes, what's inside the box? Is it a virtual reality of your own choosing? It gets very daunting very fast. (Discover magazine, June 2012)

[When asked why so much science fiction seems pessimistic] Because the apocalyptic version seems much more probable. The 1960s hung on the promise of the space program. We believed the future was something we could make. But in the 1980s, when I was growing up, that transformed into the idea that the future is something we have no control over. Thirty years from now, nuclear holocaust and artificial intelligence takeover feel much more viable to me than a federation that seeks out new civilizations. (Discover magazine, June 2012)

[on how Prometheus (2012) is different from other science fiction films] The "Alien" universe is a projected scientific view of the future. If you want to go traveling way off into the galaxy, you have to put yourself in cryosleep, because a ship can move only so fast. In the world of "Star Trek," you have sci-fi fantasy rules: There is time travel, warp drive, the ability to beam oneself around. (Discover magazine, June 2012)

[on Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)] Since the moon landing, the only version of the future that we're getting are different iterations of post-apocalypse, or apocalypse itself. Star Trek is the only series that has the balls to say,'We have problems with other alien civilizations, but as far as humanity goes, we've sorted it out.' The primary colorness of it and Utopian future that Star Trek presents is still something that we like to see, even though we no longer buy it.

And what do I do? I jump at the opportunity to acknowledge how many people were dissatisfied with how it [Lost (2004)] ended. I try to be self-deprecating and witty when I do this, but that's an elaborate (or obvious?) defense mechanism to let people know I'm fully aware of the elephant in the room and I'm perfectly fine with it sitting down on my face and shitting all over me. And this is how pathetic I've become - I'm using an opportunity to put Breaking Bad (2008) into the pantheon of best shows ever (where it undeniably belongs) to narcissistically whine about the perceived shortcomings of my own work. God, I hate myself. [Hollywood Reporter, Guest Column 2013]