Melissa Rosenberg

Melissa: (advice to upstart writers) Find a way to live, if you're not independently wealthy. Have some life experience. Know how to type. If you can, get a job as a writer's assistant so you can find out how things are done, and be on hand if something opens up. If you can't get a job as a writer's assistant -- which are hard gigs to get -- get a job as a literary agent's assistant. It's a brutal job that will kill your spirit. But you will form relationships with people on the business. Take scriptwriting classes at UCLA or AFI. And all the while keep writing. Then somebody may give you a shot.

Melissa: (on her college) That's what Bennington was for me, a way to realize dreams. The school really taught me you can make things happen in your life on a lot of different fronts.

Melissa: (on writers living up to what they did for season two of "Dexter") We've been meeting for a month now for the third season and it's been like, 'What the hell are we going to do now?'. But I think we've come up with something that's going to be hopefully as good. I can't even hope to surpass it, but I can hope to do as well. It's going to be tough. But it's a challenge.