David E. Kelley
David E. Kelley
David Edward Kelleyis an American television writer and producer, known as the creator of Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, Boston Legal, and Harry's Law as well as several films. Kelley is one of very few screenwriters to have created shows aired on all four top commercial U.S. television networks...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionProducer
Date of Birth4 April 1956
CountryUnited States of America
writing stories process
When the stories come easily and the writing process doesn't feel laboring, that's usually a good sign for me.
writing way feels
The way I personally work is I like to write what I know, what I feel, and also where I am.
writing two three
The ideal time for writing a [television] script is four days, though sometimes it has to be two or three days depending on the deadline. If it's two days, sometimes there are things I see that don't work as well. If I have two weeks, the scripts get kind of flabby and lack the adrenaline that a sense of deadline fills you with.
drama writing thinking
I don't think I could write a straight drama.
writing thinking people
So I think a writer should write what he loves, the people he relates to.
home night people
People are out of their home on a Saturday night or they're at the movies or they're at dinner and a lot of the people who flip on the television are doing just that. They may have never seen your show before and you can't count on to your audience to be there week in and week out.
scratches stories claws
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.
thinking strange process
I don't think it's that strange that a show has sort of a bumpy beginning. It's just part and parcel of the process.
children character people
When you create a show, and create characters, these people are like children to you.
when-things-go-wrong
You learn more when things go wrong.
thinking law morality
I gravitate toward the law, I think, certainly more times than not, because it's our best mechanism for legislating human behavior, and morality, and ethics.
people rooms interviews
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.
people succeed triggers
It gets harder and harder to succeed and find audiences with the 500-channel universe, the remote control, and people being so trigger happy with that remote control. It just gets harder to get a foothold.
ideas people everyday
One of the most fundamental questions people have about defense attorneys is, 'How can you do that? How can you go to bat everyday for a person that you may not know is guilty but you have a pretty good idea that he's not so innocent?' It's a question that defense attorneys answer for themselves by not addressing.