Today’s interview is with Terence Winter, creator and executive producer of the HBO series “Boardwalk Empire” and appears in the Huffington Post. An excerpt:

I’ve read that seeing Scorsese’s Taxi Driver was a turning point in your life. How so?

The minute I saw it, I knew I’d never seen anything like it before. The look of it, the darkness of its subject matter. Ultimately, I came to realize it was more European in style — of course I didn’t know that then; I didn’t know what I was watching. I just knew I loved it, and it was the first film that got me thinking of movies as an art form, and I saw it well over a dozen times that summer. And I wondered, ‘Who made this movie? Who is this guy Martin Scorsese?’ Then I read about him and learned about films that influenced him, and I’d try to see them but it was really hard. This was 1976, pre-VCR, and unless you took the subway and went to art houses that ran revivals, you didn’t get to see them. You might catch some on TV late at night, but you really had to make a great effort. Then 1984 came around and the first video stores popped up, and I didn’t leave my house for three months. I just rented everything I ever wanted to see.

You must have been happy when you got to work with Scorsese on Boardwalk.

It was ridiculous. I started to question whether I was dreaming all of it. I still don’t know how to describe it. It was mind-blowing. The idea that I could go to his house and pitch him on something and work with him — well, if you’d told me that in 1976… He’s now a friend and a colleague and a partner, and it’s absolutely a thrill.

For more of the interview, go here.

HT to Nadria for the link.