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I'd like to play characters who are older - I don't want to be playing 14-year-olds too much longer.

TV is like high school because you go into these series, and the people that work there have been doing it for seven years, like 'One Tree Hill,' so you are going into what is already a family - if you are accepted by that family, then it's fantastic fun.

Once I got to high school and auditioned for a play and got in, I thought this was really what I was looking for. Once that had got cleared up, from 13 on, that was it.

Now we're here in 2009. My boys are 16 and 18, one's going to USC film school, and the other seems to be a natural comedian. So now I have to go back into show business as a senior comedian. So I hope to get Walter Brennan-type roles, Gabby Hayes kind of stuff, be the old-timer. We'll see what happens.

Unlike me, a lot of child actors are very short, which is why they work. So when they're 15 they can play 11 or when they're 18 they can play 14. They look young for so long, they have abilities a much younger kid wouldn't have.

You can think of Hollywood as high school. TV actors are freshmen, comedy actors are maybe juniors, and dramatic actors - they're the cool seniors.

When 'Desperate Housewives' ends, I think my girls will be about the kindergarten age. I will be so happy to be there for them through that huge transition.

All of my main characters have been under 30.

We should be writing more great roles for women, period. Another problem is that movies are generally made for 14-year-old boys, and 14-year-old boys want to watch 25-year-old action heroes.

When I wrote my first story, all the characters were teenagers because I think 16, 17 is a great age.