My writing flows out of my doctorhood. They are not separate things. They are one. I think the foremost connection between being a doctor and being a writer is the great privilege of having an intimate view of one's fellow humans, the privilege of being there and helping other people at their most vulnerable moments.
For me, every show that's about teachers - and there's been a number of them - they're like misfits who hate the kids and don't want to be there and hate their jobs. For me, having crazy parents, my teachers were the sane people who raised me, and they liked being there.
You sort of start to slowly earn more respect from the players. You have to get used to being there and know that you belong. Mentally, that’s one of the hardest parts.
Some readers sort of suspect that you have another book that you didn't publish that has even more information in it. I think that readers sort of want to be taught something. They have this idea that there's a takeaway from a novel rather than just the being there, which I think is the great, great pleasure of reading.
People are going to come into your life that need you, and being there for them makes the day worth living. People are going to come into your life that you need, and that's the really crazy thing.
I've always loved reporting from the field most of all. There's something about doing live TV and being there as it happens that's always appealed to me. I think there's great value to bearing witness to these events as they're actually happening.
One of the few luxuries left is travel. And the aspect of travel that is luxurious is not the movement, but the being there.
One of the great things about 'Girls' is that each of these characters really does represent a human being. There are definitely relatable aspects to all of these folks, and certainly within my close friend group, those personalities very much exist.
I cry whenever I watch an emotional scene that I did, just because it brings me back to that moment. It's like, I remember being there; I remember feeling what I felt. It's really weird, right?
With fame, you can't trust everybody. You can't depend on them being there for you as a person. They will only be there because of what you've got you as a person. They will only be there because of what you've got and what you can bring to their life. It's not a relationship-it's a leech.