Lauren Schmidt Hissrich

“Sure, there are moments that you can escape, and you can sit back and just enjoy it, but one of the most fun things about 'The Witcher' is that it reflects on our real world, in big thematic ways, in political ways, and in cultural ways.”

“I read 'The Last Wish' and really loved it. But I never would have called myself a fantasy writer before this. I've done some comic book shows, I've done a lot of drama. So when I read the book I loved it but never thought I should adapt it personally.”

“I think that anytime you're doing casting and you're casting something that has a lot of existing fans you're going to get a lot of opinions about whether it matches fans vision.”

“I fell in love with David Bowie in 'Labyrinth'. That's probably the initial fantasy movie that I saw and fell in love with.”

“Nice doesn't mean 'naive.' Nice doesn't mean 'gullible.' In my job, one of the most important things to be is decisive and firm.”

“I feel like as a writer, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to 'Game of Thrones', because it really blew open the doors for fantasy on television.”

“For me, the biggest surprise? I had no idea how worldwide the fandom for 'The Witcher' was.”

“I didn't have a lot of experience with adult fantasy. And that's sort of what intersected with me and 'The Witcher.'”

“I like fantasy, but I don't live and breathe fantasy.”

“When I was 20, I picked up and left my entire family, who were in Ohio, and moved to Los Angeles on my own.”

“People often ask me if fantasy is about escapism, and I personally don't think it is.”

“I'm not sure I'd have said, 'I'm a fantasy viewer.' Now I know I am, because I sat and watched 'Game of Thrones' and have never been more invested in a show in my life.”

“That, to me, is the core of fantasy - real people in a crazy environment, dealing with crazy problems. That's what I think the books of 'The Witcher' did really well, and it's what attracted me to them, in the first place.”

“To me, I love when, as a viewer, I can be on a journey with a character, and not just hearing about something that happened in the past.”

“I think audiences are really savvy and know when we're doing stuff to just shock them versus do stuff that really drives the story.”

“I love what happens between colleagues. It's just another facet of family to me. That's certainly what we explored all over 'The West Wing'. I was an intern in my first season between my junior and senior years of college. Then, I worked on the staff for the next six years.”

“What you don't want is just to say, 'All showrunners need to be half women and half men,' because then, for men and women, you could get inexperienced people doing those jobs, failing, and then not getting the opportunity to do them again.”

“It's like, if you have a story that's already great, then the thing that we can shift is how we're telling that story, how we're presenting it to the world.”