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Nobody is surprised that women writers accurately represent male characters over and over again, no doubt because everybody knows that women understand men much better than vice-versa.

I think there have always been male writers, female writers. As a reader, I never picked up a book and said, 'Oh, I can't read this - it's about a male,' and set it back down.

I'm not an especially male novelist, but I think men are better at writing about men, and the same is true for women. Reading Saul Bellow is a revelation, but he can't write women. There are exceptions, like Marilynne Robinson's 'Gilead,' but generally, I think it's true.

The bottom line is that female writers aren't being given enough opportunities by male producers.

It is difficult to get men to pick up a female author. Women will read men, but men won't read women.

I think male roles are generally much better written. So for actresses, we're always dealing with trying to inject a role with more truth than the writer possibly had in mind.

I've been playing with this idea in my mind that the hero's journey that we're all taught as screenwriters may resonate more specifically for male protagonists and maybe even male viewers.

I can't imagine writing a book without some strong female characters, unless that was a demand of the setting.

There are a lot of women screenwriters, but they are obviously outnumbered by men. And it still is a very much male-dominated industry.

I have this theory that the likeability question comes up so much more with female characters created by female authors than it does with male characters and male authors.