Vince Gilligan

The thing that intrigued me about 'Breaking Bad' from day one was the idea of taking a character and transforming him. Show less «

[on introduction of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass in Breaking Bad (2008)] I like the idea of Gale's poetic justice from beyond the grave. The writers and I love the idea of revisiting previous moments in the show because we love the idea that all actions have consequences. We know that in our day-to-day lives, but very often in television storytelling characters say things or they do things and a particular episode ends and there's not necessarily much in the way of resonance. On this show, we very much like a character's actions to have repercussions in ways that we identify with in real life. And to that end, we love revisiting these old moments, and Walt Whitman's poetry was something that Gale Boetticher loved. It touched his heart and he wanted to share it with his new friend and mentor Walter White. And unfortunately the sharing of it and Walt keeping this book in hindsight proved to be a bit unwise. Show less «

There are two ways of knowing if something ends badly: If you're honest with yourself, you just kind of know it. And then there's other people's reaction to it. Show less «

You don't make a movie by yourself; you certainly don't make a TV show by yourself. You invest people in their work. You make people feel comfortable in their jobs; you keep people talking. Show less «

There's nothing more powerful to a showrunner than a truly invested writer.

If you look closely at 'Breaking Bad' and any given episode of 'The X Files,' you will realize the structure is exactly the same. Show less «

'SpongeBob SquarePants' is a great show, and it centers on a character that is courageously nice. Why is SpongeBob interesting? It's because he has passion. He has a passion for chasing jellyfish. Show less «

People want what they want, for as long as they want it, then tastes change and something else works. Show less «

The older I get, the more nervous and anxiety-ridden I get. I don't know how to fix that.

[re shooting in New Mexico] All the wonderful topographical and geographical elements, we put to good use in the show. Especially the clouds, which you don't see in the blank blue skies of Southern California. They allow you to perceive the immense size of the sky. They go on forever some days. Any chance my girlfriend and I get. We went up to Santa Fe, and near there is Taos, a wonderful town, and Madrid, off the Turquoise Trail, a little artists' community. It has an old coal mining museum that I love...The Sandias, the mountains to the east [of Albuquerque] are omnipresent. Take the cable car up to a restaurant called High Finance, which is a good place to eat. It's stark beauty up there; you can see for hundreds of miles. Show less «

I guess I learned and am in the process of learning that less is more and oftentimes it's a benefit when you don't throw the kitchen sink at it... Especially that you don't make any of your plotting decisions out of fear or desperation. That is an important lesson for anyone to learn, to keep to the story and the characters simple rather than letting it all get away from you in an effort to please what is perceived to be an increasingly attention-deprived audience. The show's either gonna work for you or not. The odds tell you it won't. Most shows don't work. And when they do work, it's kind of like winning the lottery. With Breaking Bad I feel like I pulled the lever at the slot machine, and it came up cherries. If it was something I did, I don't know if I could repeat it. Having said that, in hindsight, my good fortune was that I didn't have the opportunity to go with my first instincts and throw the kitchen sink plot-wise into our first season. If I'd done that, I would have painted myself into some seriously unpleasant plot corners. My general philosophy now more than ever is to give the audience the least possible, which sounds like a weird philosophy, but you want to parcel things out as slowly you can. Of course what that means is, you want to parcel things out as slowly as you can while keeping things gripping and interesting. I don't necessarily believe the conventional wisdom that the audience is more restless than ever and always needs more stimulation. People still like storytelling that can slow down enough to explore characters and examine them closely. I think there's still room for that. Hopefully, that never gets lost completely. Show less «

I always feel a little guilty when I say this, but while I've spent plenty of time on the Internet looking up useless crap, I don't spend any time on the Internet looking up 'Breaking Bad', nor myself. I do that out of a very neurotic sense of self-protection. I know that it would be a rabbit hole that I would disappear down. But this show wouldn't exist without the fans, and it wouldn't exist without the critics and the journalists and the reporters, the folks who said, 'Watch this thing' from the get-go. And I'm immensely grateful to anyone who has proselytized for this show since day one. Show less «

About 150 miles south of Albuquerque is a town called Truth or Consequences, so renamed from Hot Springs in 1950 after the old quiz show Truth or Consequences (1950) had a contest to air a program from whatever small town in America that would change its name. It's a charming little town where you go to take the waters. We spent the weekend at Sierra Grande Lodge and Spa, this very quaint, old-timey spa. You have these individual open-air tubs where you turn on the spigot, and the natural hot springs come bubbling up. I had a cigar and drank a little bourbon while I was in it, which is probably a bad idea all around when you're in 115-degree water. But outdoors, under the stars, it's very nice. Show less «