Question: You're a Professor of Writing at UC Riverside. Did your experience with your class have any impact on the format of the show?

Reza Aslan: I do teach one particular course to the graduate students called "The Writing Life," and it is about what does it means to be a writer. What does that entail? How does one become successful? How does one create a writing process? Those conversations were so fascinating to me -- so constructive, and so rarely had -- it became clear that that was something that was really interesting. And I would bring in all of my friends who are writers to discuss how they started, the best advice they could give, and that really was the genesis for this.

Reza Aslan (continued): But truly what happened was we began to talk about how interesting it would be to hear from well-established writers, especially nowadays, as writers are so different than they were 20 years ago. Writers are celebrities in many cases, particularly when it comes to television. We thought a show that features writers talking about the process of writing, the lessons they've learned, the hurdles they've had to overcome, would not just be fun and funny and lively, but also instructive. And I think that's the best part of it. As fun as these shows are, you always learn something new about writing, and more generally the creative process.

Question: Do you think that a show like this, which is so focused on those behind the scenes versus those in front, would have been as popular years ago?

Reza Aslan: I think for many years the writer was treated like the gaffer. As something that was necessary, but really unimportant. But the quality of writing has changed, particularly how television as a medium has become much more complicated and advanced and in many ways has surpassed film. Television, as everyone knows, is a writer's medium. It has allowed talented writers to become celebrities in their own right, and unlike actual celebrities, I think writers feel more free to say the things that they actually believe and feel -- and they know that they are not going to be punished for it in the way that an actor or an actress would.

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Question: Do you believe that audiences are becoming more appreciative of the creative process of writing and the unique voices involved?

Reza Aslan: It's changing and I hope that we can be on the forefront of that change. We hope that people would come to us in the same way they would go to see a celebrity on a show like JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE. The reason we craft ourselves like a late night talk show -- with the live studio audience, the live band, the drinking, the laughter, the fun and the no holds barred -- we want to bring that aesthetic to the artistic process, the creative process, the writing process.

Question: Are you surprised that it's caught on this way? You said you started and you charged $20 at a club to attend.

Reza Aslan: I'm not surprised; I think people around me are surprised. I think a lot of people around me thought, "Well this will be fun." I remember the first live show that we did -- our guest was BJ Novak -- and I remember thinking to myself, "Is anyone going to come to this?" And it was a fire hazard. That's the amazing thing. The next time we had Elizabeth Meriwether, the creator of NEW GIRL, and there were even more people. And then we had Dustin Lance Black and even more came. And there was this excitement from an audience that was literate, wanted to take part in a literary event, wanted to talk about books and writing and creativity, but didn't want to do it in a stuffy environment. We knew if this was going to work, it has to be cool.