Succession creator Jesse Armstrong compares his writing philosophy to “recreational drugs”

While fans and writers alike wrung their hands over what would befall Kendall Roy after losing his crown in Succession’s final episode, another profound loss was taking place behind the scenes. Jesse Armstrong—the show’s creator and CEO, if you will—had to say goodbye to the series that has thus far defined his career. Thankfully, it sounds like he’s taking this change in status a whole lot better than Kendall ever could. Actually, scratch that. Kendall’s off on a tropical island somewhere enjoying his retirement and sipping a piña colada. It’s canon if we believe in it hard enough, okay?

Anyway, it sounds like Armstrong is also enjoying his retirement, such as it is. “There was some sadness about the show ending… [But] doing the show was such a rush of pleasure and anxieties and hard work, of pondering the next season and worrying that you’re going to screw it up [that] is is very, very nice to have time to read again. And to travel,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “On a day-to-day level, I don’t miss it. I’m enjoying not having the tremendous pressure of making the show as good as we all wanted it to be.”

Loss isn’t the only thing Armstrong shares with his protagonist. The two also share a proclivity for recreational drugs—Kendall of the “actual drug” variety and Armstrong of a more “metaphor for writing” flavor. “Honestly, you don’t know what effect your words are going to have in the world. They may have the opposite effect from what you intend,” Armstrong said of his desire to tell the truth in his work. “I’m interested in things that are multiple, human and complicated, where you therefore run the risk of being misunderstood or having your ideas used against your will.”

“For me, it’s like the difference between medical drugs and psychoactive recreational drugs,” he went on to explain. “We are not producing a medical drug which is if you take this thing it will cure your democracy. Absolutely not. That’s not my business. But it may be a positive form of psychoactive or recreational drugs, something you might enjoy or might make you see the world a little differently. But there are dangers with those drugs too. I think that’s that’s the business I’m in: Recreational drugs, not pharmaceuticals.” Maybe Armstrong’s next project will be a send-up of big pharma à la Pain Hustlers or The Dropout. Or maybe it will just be an even longer break, which he deserves, just like Kendall.