Quotes by Rod Lurie

“If I was just throwing on the air another middle-aged white man as president of the United States and he was a Democrat, then, no, there would be no reason to do it.”

“What The West Wing does is show you how bills are made and how the White House works with the Congress. Theyre a very political show, which is great. I can watch it forever. Were going to devote a lot of time to East Wing residence stuff.”

“is rather arcane and it deals with very specific political issues.”

“Its not like when I hired them they had to fill out a questionnaire and say, Im a Democrat,”

“We come from a community [of actors and filmmakers] that happens to be mostly Democratic. With all due respect, your question is loaded; you had to know the answer before you asked.”

“His problem was unusual, ... He didnt want to play a Republican for six years. He didnt think he had the internal fortitude to play somebody who goes against everything he personally stands for.”

“[Lurie said that I was naive to think that Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi and Golda Meir meant that people would be comfortable with a woman leading the free world.] Do you think she would be taken seriously by Arab countries? ... When Bushs voice cracked after 9/11, that was seen as a man showing his emotions. If a woman did that, it would be seen as weakness, as breaking under the pressure.”

“Were going to deal a lot with how you get the kids to school, how do you take the little kids trick or treating”

“I couldnt think of another way to get her into power where basically her own Cabinet is against her, the whole world is crashing down on her. And I also feel that as an Independent, it would be naive and fairytale-ish to assume right now that an Independent would come to power at the head of a ticket.”

“[If he werent so eager to differentiate between the two shows, Lurie could have easily called his new series The East Wing .] What The West Wing does extremely well is show how bills are made and how the White House works with the Congress. Theyre a very political show, ... Were going to deal a lot with the family: how you get the kids to school; this sounds petty but how do you take little kids trick-or-treating; a lot of what takes place in the residence. While [Davis character] is the president of the United States, shes also a mother. I dont think that would disappear even if a woman became the president.”