Al Swearengen: Pain or damage don’t end the world. Or despair or fucking beatings. The world ends when you’re dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man… and give some back.

— Deadwood

Milch on TV, Osama, Bush and Iraq:

He likened the media coverage during the beginning of the war in Iraq with that of a “three-week miniseries with a beginning, middle and end,” where the ending was the act of the Iraqis tearing down the statue of Saddam Hussein.

“When the series was over, the president’s approval rating was 98% — that was a good show,” Milch said. “What’s left is ‘reruns’ with people dying, but,” speaking as he was imagining a viewer might, “‘I’m done with that “show.” Now you’re showing me people being blown up by bombs? I’m done with that — bring those boys home. Put something else on. Go back to Osama bin Laden — that “show” was never finished.”‘

He went on to say that “people spend more than a third of their waking hours watching TV, which is weird, especially given the s— we’re delivered. The consequences are that if we have one more plane (hit) a building, (the public response will be) ‘They’re all ragheads, they all look alike. We gave them a chance, now let’s kill them all.”‘

A.