What I'm still grappling with and learning how to do is to be looking and thinking cinematically having come from television.

You watch television and see what's going on on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President and nothing's going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress.

So no one should rely on television either for their knowledge of music or for news. There's just more going on. It's an adjunct to the written word which I think is still the most important thing.

I was one of the first generations to watch television. TV exposes people to news to information to knowledge to entertainment. How is it bad?

The thing with film and theater is that you always know the story so you can play certain cues in each scene with the knowledge that you know where the story's going to end and how it's going to go. But on television nobody knows what's going to happen even the writers.

Television contracts the imagination and radio expands it.

We didn't have television until I was about eight years old so it was either the movies or radio. A lot of radio drama. That was our television you know. We had to use our imagination. So it was really those two things and the comics that I immersed myself in as a child.

I really hate sitcoms on television with canned laughter and stuff. What really makes me laugh is the real-life stuff. I've got a dry sense of humor.

Television has spread the habit of instant reaction and stimulated the hope of instant results.

I had a huge advantage when I started 50 years ago - my job was secure. I didn't have to promote myself. These days there's far more pressure to make a mark so the temptation is to make adventure television or personality shows. I hope the more didactic approach won't be lost.