Shonda Rhimes

Shonda: College changed me in many ways. Dartmouth is where I grew up, began to truly experience life and think of myself as a citizen of the larger world. It's where I began to feel true confidence in myself as a writer. It's where I discovered theater; it's where I discovered ME.

Shonda: I joke that I have one daughter and nine actors, not because actors are children in any way, but because you want to create that same nurturing environment where they can grow and work.

Shonda: (describing "Grey's Anatomy") It is a chick show. I'm sorry, but at the end of the day it's a chick show because it's a show I want to watch, and I have no problem with that.

Shonda: (on having themes in "Grey's Anatomy") We absolutely start with [one]. I think a theme unifies the whole piece, affects the medical stories, affects the fun stuff going on with the characters. Obviously Meredith's voice-over is all about the theme.

Shonda: Medical school was one of my options. That now seems laughable since I am a germophobe and science-challenged.

Shonda: I know what the last scene will be the last time the show ever airs on network television. I love [the fact] that I know that, and I'll hold it out and keep writing to it.

Shonda: Writing is the only talent in this business of show that you can do whether or not anybody else is there or anybody is paying you or anybody is allowing you to do it.

Shonda: I think television has a responsibility to create a diverse world, period. And if we can do it on the show with not just the main cast but with the guest stars and people who come on, I think it's a good idea.

Shonda: (on the show "Grey's Anatomy") To me, it's not so much about the fact that it's medicine as about it's surgery and it's competition, and that feels fresh. It's also very much about their personal lives.

Shonda: (on coming up with the euphemism "vajayjay") I think no one is comfortable experiencing the female anatomy out loud — which is a shame considering our anatomy is half the population.

Shonda: (about staying on with "Grey's Anatomy") I always really hate when shows have a creator who walks away, because it can really change the show. This is my baby. It's my first television show. I don't wanna go anywhere.

Shonda: (in a letter to the "Grey's Anatomy" crew) I'm incredibly concerned about how deeply this is affecting you all. The crews are foremost on the mind of every TV writer and actor I encounter. And, while i do believe that the fight the WGA is fighting is a good one, I wish like crazy that it could be over so that we can all get back to work.

Shonda: (on the movie "Crossroads") I definitely felt [that] if there was any message I wanted that film to give, it was that friendships are powerful and can extend beyond race, class, and social standing.

Shonda: I love fiction, but I can't write four pages about the antique Armoire. It just makes my head hurt. But screenwriting's very clean. It's action, it's dialogue, and that happened somehow to suit me.

Shonda: There's something very sexy about surgery. You actually have your hands in someone else's body.