Obviously death is a theme I’m fascinated by.

I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff on TV. I feel much more optimistic about TV than I do about movies. There will always be good movies but I think, for the most part,...

There is a fetishization of victimization in our culture. And I just am not interested in victimhood.

If a scene is longer than three pages, it better be for a good reason.

I’m not like J.K. Rowling, where I know there’s going to be this number of seasons, and I know exactly what’s going to happen. I would be so bored if that was the case. There...

Racism is ridiculous no matter where it’s coming from.

I really love storytelling, and I love the stories as they reveal themselves. It’s an incredibly nourishing process; it’s probably the closest I come to having a religion.

And as I stumbled onto Eastern philosophy and Buddhism, it was the first time I had ever read any sort of philosophy that really made a tremendous amount of sense. What I liked that was...

I try to tell the best story, and the story that has some heart and some genuine terror and some social commentary and some comedy and some romance and some sex and some violence.

In my own life, I think legends of supernatural, mythic things are really just a manifestation of the collective unconscious. So I don’t really get freaked out. I mean certainly, you read about things people...

My own belief is that people can come back from anything. It doesn’t mean that it won’t come at a huge cost.

It’s a lot harder to find fault with the mundane details of daily existence when you really, really know on a cellular level that you’re going to go, and that this moment, right now, is...

I know a lot of shows are like, ‘Here’s the pages,’ right before they start filming. I’d have a heart attack. The anxiety would be way too much for me. I don’t have as strong...

Life is infinitely complex, and I feel like we live in a culture that really seems to want to simplify it into sound bites and bromides, and that does not work.

The idea of celibate vampires is ridiculous. To me, vampires are sex. I don’t get a vampire story about abstinence. I don’t care about high school students. I find them irritating and uninformed.

Ultimately, physical resemblance isn’t as important as whether this person can bring this character to life in a way that’s compelling and makes me care about what happens to them.

Life is too mysterious to try to map it out. I’ve certainly lived long enough to know it will take you places you never thought it would take you – and some of those places...

Vampires are total sexual metaphors; there’s just no way around that.

The ego is kind of a big, unwieldy thing. It’s not so easily tamed or subdued.

I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all...

I guess in America we’re so sold on this ideal of the perfect, well-adjusted family that is able to confront any conflict and, with true love and understanding, work things through. I’m sure they do...

A lot of times, the choice of the right song will save a scene. Or there will be a scene that’s a little flat and you put in the right song and somehow it just...

Well did you call the hypothetical hardware store and buy a theoretical chainsaw?– Pam to Jessica, True Blood

I think vampires are a timeless powerful archetype that can tap into people’s psyches.

Somebody asked me, ‘Why do people like vampires so much?’ This was right after Obama had been elected and I said, ‘Because we just spent eight years being sucked dry by one.’

I think sexuality is a window into someone’s soul.

When I go home, the last thing I want to do is read about the popular lore of vampires.

‘Six Feet Under’ was about repressing our deepest, most primal impulses, and ‘True Blood’ is about giving full sway to them all the time. In a way they are like yin and yang.

As a culture, we are not comfortable with mortality. We do not accept it the way other cultures do. We cling to youth, and we don’t want to die. It’s like, ‘Well, too bad, we...

We live in a time where there’s an alienation factor. There’s a certain disconnection. We don’t have any real sense of community anymore.

I would say try to tell stories that you care about as opposed to stories that you think will sell.

Television viewing has become for me a completely different experience, because I don’t watch shows on a weekly basis. I wait until the DVD or I TiVo everything and wait until the end of a...

I believe forgiveness is possible for everybody, for everything, but I’m a Buddhist.

I am so spoiled. I cannot watch a show where it gets interrupted for ads. I have to TiVo it and skip through the ads, because the culture of advertising is so false and phony...

‘True Blood’ differs from ‘Six Feet Under’ in that there are way more characters and plot-lines, but fundamentally it’s still about the characters and their emotions.

Depending on what happens with my directing career, I don’t think I’ll stop writing, even if I crash and burn in movies and TV. I’ll go back to plays. Even if I crash and burn...

I’m at the point in my life where I don’t want to work as hard. Actually, I’ve had to take a good hard look at workaholism and it’s effect on one’s mental health.

I’m used to American actors who have a movie career thinking television acting is beneath them.

There are times when I am directing, and there are a couple of moments I didn’t get the way I wanted, but I know I still have other angles to shoot and I have to...

I’m a huge freak, and always have been. I spent the first part of my life trying really desperately not to be one, and it was just a waste of time.

I am a little suspicious of industry paradigms. I feel like so many movies and TV shows feel so familiar because of over-reliance on these paradigms.

I’m aware of ‘Twilight,’ but I’ve never seen the movies or read any of the books. Frankly, the story leaves me cold – why do a vampire story about abstinence?

I certainly feel fortunate in my career to have been able to continue to work in different mediums. I don’t ever want to be the guy who gets really good at one thing and just...

I certainly believe that what we perceive as humans is just the tip of the iceberg. I don’t necessarily believe in vampires or werewolves or that kind of thing, but I believe there is definitely...

We live in a patriarchal culture. It’s okay for women to be objectified but not for men.

Well, here’s the thing with relationships on ‘True Blood’: Once they happen then you have to throw a monkey-wrench into them, because to have people be happy is not that exciting.

Death is a companion for all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we’re aware of it or not, and it’s not necessarily a terrible thing.

I think the world is a place for oddballs and freaks. I’m only interested in oddballs and freaks as characters.

I’m not saying that being gay is what defines me, but at the same time, if you feel like you have to hide it, then it becomes what defines you. You keep it hidden, and...

I don’t believe in any particular definition of the afterlife, but I do believe we’re spiritual creatures and more than our biology and that energy cannot be destroyed, but can change. I don’t know what...