David E. Kelley

David E. Kelley: (about the show The Law Firm) I think it's a smart show and it gives our contestants a chance to excel. It's not a forum to exploit or ridicule the lawyers who are a part of this franchise, it's just the opposite. It's a place where the brightest will shine.

David E. Kelley: If you interview people or friends who work with me, they would say I'm private or internal or don't emote a lot. Yet I do it every day for 10 million people. I just don't do it for the 30 people I'm in the room with.

David E. Kelley: (on the show Boston Legal) I think this show probably, I guess, is a reflection of me a little bit, has a scream in its belly and sometimes it just feels it needs to scream.

David E. Kelley: If an issue isn't going to succeed on an entertainment level, we will usually pass on it. Beyond that, if we can be provocative on an intellectual or social level as well, then all the better.

David E. Kelley: (on reality shows) I remain as disgusted as ever at the exploitative garbage currently polluting our medium and will try not to pollute it further.

David E. Kelley: When the stories come easily and the writing process doesn't feel laboring, that's usually a good sign for me. When I really have to push and grope and scratch and claw to make a story work, that's a telltale sign that maybe something conceptually isn't right.

David E. Kelley: (when asked about story elements) You've got to honor your relationship with your audience -- that they sit down because they want to be entertained. And that doesn't mean you can't provoke them and antagonize them and challenge them in the course of the entertainment as long as you keep the entertainment part of the equation alive.

David E. Kelley: (when asked about writing on a show) There's a period at the beginning of a series (when) you're doing most of the writing and then you go through another period where you have the ideas and you're assigning those stories and ideas to other people and hopefully they execute them. Then, if you're lucky, you get a staff where they come into the room with their own ideas and specific takes on how to execute them and they do.