You never master it, I don’t care how many lifetimes, and that’s the beauty of it. You see, that’s the slippery slope, where people say “master this”—there’s no master; you’re in a relationship with something. That’s what’s really beautiful about it, it’s always bigger than you. It needs you, you need it. There’s no difference in any relationship. There’s no mastering of it—you engage. You engage with it on a daily level. Take pizza, we have our objective, our intention, our medium. Our cooking medium, what we’re able to work with: flour, water, condition, time, audience and what their expectations are, and what’s our intention—and really being clear with that intention—and serving that intention and staying focused on it. It’s very similar to music or sports in that way, where you stay focused on your mission and know that you might get better at something, but the minute you believe you’ve mastered it, it’ll show you who’s boss. I’ve had a beautiful relationship with flour, water, yeast, salt and the human experience.

Fan fiction. Brand hijacking. Copyright misuse. Sheer devotion. Call it what you will, but we call it the blurred line between content creators and content consumers, and it’s not going away. We’re your biggest fans, your die-hard proponents, and when your show gets cancelled we’ll be among the first to pass around the petition. Talk to us. Befriend us. Engage us. But please, don’t treat us like criminals.

Fuck the casual viewer. Seriously, who wants a casual viewer? If you’re a writer do you want a casual reader? I don’t want those people. Don’t want ‘em. Throwing them back. They’re like little fish on the hook. Throw ‘em back. I want the guy who’s come in who wants to be told a story. A story has a beginning, middle and an end.