I will tell you a true thing: in Hollywood, the one thing you hear over
and over again is the wish to direct. Camera-men want to direct, writers want
to direct, actors want to direct, producers want to direct, cinematographers
want to direct....

Me, I *don't* wanna direct.

No interest in it, no aptitude for it.

I'm a *writer*, period. As it is, the only reasons I decided to move up
the ladder and become a producer are:

1) So nobody rewrites my stuff.

2) To create the kinds of shows that I would want to write for.

3) To acquire control over the physical production of my writing by being
the one who HIRES the director.

That's the totality of it...I became a producer simply as an act of self-
defense and to protect the material. I *hate* dealing with numbers, and
dollars, and haggling with business affairs guys, and worrying about budgets
and hirings and corporate structures and completion bonds and film stock costs
and how many Teamsters we're gonna need...but it's the only way to get the
control of my writing that I really want.

The one thing I hate more than almost anything in the world is taking
Stupid Notes from somebody. The solution? Become a producer. That way you
get to GIVE the stupid notes....

jms