I don't like to listen to the unthoughtful criticism. When we have thoughtful criticism, I love it.
What I always think about when I think about 'Girls' is Lena being in a scene where she's very vulnerable, possibly directing, acting, and she's probably written the dialogue. It's 2 in the morning. Everyone's tired. Everyone's grumpy. And she has a smile on her face and kindness for everyone who interacts with her.
I always think there's this thing, when you live in New York, like, this unspoken agreement between everyone who lives there, like, 'We're sticking this out. It's the hardest place to live, but it's the best city in the world, so we are all going to do this together.'
Some writing programs are very much like, you come in, and you have a niche that becomes yours, and, you know, you're the dude from the streets. Or you're the woman who was in prison.
When we worked on 'Girls,' we've had some really meaningful dialogue with our fans and with critics and really learned a lot of things. Like, on the question of diversity, we heard people, and we responded, which is very different from, like, 'Hey fatty, what are you doing on TV?' And that's what we're trying to avoid.
There were no surprises, because when you sell a pilot based on a pitch, no matter how great the script is, it's going to look different and feel different from what someone imagines in their head. There will always be varying degrees of disappointment or confusion.
We want to talk to celebrities about the things celebrities don't normally talk about. Like, we'd love to get Kim Kardashian to talk to us about finance. She is a businesswoman, after all.
It's when people come at you on Twitter and say really crazy things. That's the kind of stuff that I insulate myself from. All of that is not very interesting or helpful, but we have critics who sometimes really love us or sometimes don't, and it's really interesting for me to see what they don't like about it.
One of the reasons 'Boogie Nights' is one of my favorite movies is because it's about people in this gross industry, but they actually treat each other kind of like family. And at the end of the day, they're really kind to each other, and I feel like that is what we have.
We've never had twin infants on set in all kinds of different roles.
Our interests are pretty boundless, as is our appetite for new creative experiences.