As a showrunner, you can never be a maybe. When I do movies, there is a lot of "maybe" and "let's investigate that." But for TV, it has to be yes or no. I'm very black and white about what I like or don't like, and I've always been that way. I've always been sort of "I love it" or "I hate it," and I think as a result I've always been a polarizing person. You either love me or you hate me. There's not a lot of "Hmmm."

[on what it takes to be a provocateur] I never think I'm creating anything controversial, and I'm always surprised when it is. I'll admit, when I first started and was doing "Nip/Tuck," I was really trying to sort of make a statement about hedonism and narcissism and sexuality, and I spent half my day fighting battles on that show. I had huge standards problems, and I'd have big fights with [FX's] John Landgraf, whom I love now, and Peter Liguori. Now I never fight... I'm less interested in shocking now. Being emotional is more interesting to me. It's funny because I don't get as many standards notes as I used to. I guess what I'm interested in is what has become much more personal to me and thus much more heartfelt and maybe less scandalous. Also, I find that in television, the true taboo is never violence, it's sex, and I'm writing less about sex and more about love at this point.

[on what people may not know about him] I'm a softy. There was this turning point for me -- and not in a good way -- when I did "The Glee Project." When I started, I was like, "OK, I'm going to go from being an artist to a Simon Cowell personality." That was my role, and I was really nervous about it. I loved the show, but it was sort of soul-robbing, and I think that people thought that I was that person, the Darth Vader of musical theater. To this day, I look back on episodes, and it kills me that I had to cut those kids. I sort of wish I had done that show and not been in it.

I think it's only natural to be influenced by the filmmakers and things that you gravitate to when you were younger. I think my first seminal television moment was my grandmother forcing me, sobbing and screaming, to watch 'Dark Shadows'. She would make me sit through it to toughen me, I think. And when I was bad I had to watch 'The Waltons'.

[on Network (1976)]: I just loved it. I remember seeing it as a kid and being absolutely fascinated because it's people doing terrible things and yet you understand why they're doing them. I was very inspired by that when I made Running with Scissors (2006)". It was the same idea.

Face it, I'm legend. It's happened.

Ah, my famous cologne. It's because when I was growing up, I could only afford that cheap Halston stuff.