[in defense of the NSA surveillance program] To loudly proclaim our indignation at the maintenance of an essential and comprehensive database, while at the same time insisting on a proactive response to the inevitable attempts at terrorism is as childish as it is obtuse.

The trick to making a story matter is that every now and then, somebody you care about has to go. If it's somebody that you don't care about, then it doesn't really have - the stakes aren't there. But if you do that every now and then, then the story matters to people. And there are actual stakes involved, emotional stakes.

(Discussing whether he hopes The Wire (2002) will cause reforms of the institutions portrayed in the series) I'll tell you what, this would be enough for me: The next time the drug czar or Ashcroft or any of these guys stands up and declares, 'With a little fine-tuning, with a few more prison cells, and a few more lawyers, a few more cops, a little better armament, and another omnibus crime bill that adds 15 more death-penalty statutes, we can win the war on drugs' -- if a slightly larger percentage of the American population looks at him and goes, 'You are so full of shit' ... that would be gratifying.

The guys we were stealing from in The Wire (2002) are the Greeks. In our heads, we're writing a Greek tragedy, but instead of the gods being petulant and jealous Olympians hurling lightning bolts down at our protagonists, it's the Postmodern institutions that are the gods. And they are gods. And no one is bigger.