I watched a documentary about [the Italian painter] Caravaggio, and I realized if you were building churches for the Pope in that era, you were in a pretty similar position to a show creator. You’ve got an art you do, and it is also a craft, and it takes a lot of practical skill and management, and you have to have a crew, and you have to have a vision. But, ultimately, the Pope’s got to step up with a lot of cash. It’s difficult to do it without the Pope. You can’t ignore that side of the equation. You can’t be like: “I’ll just build St. Peter’s Basilica on my own.” If you really want to do that as a showrunner, go write a novel. There’s just no TV universe in which that happens.
--Matt Nix, creator of the TV show Burn Notice via deadline.com