SILVIO HORTA is the 33-year-old creator and executive producer of ABC’s “Ugly Betty” – which starts its post-strike run on Thursday.

Do you know when you’re writing crap?

Yeah. Right now, my process? I surrender to the fact that what I first put on paper will be crap. So at least I have crap to work with. Then hopefully it’s not crap anymore. Initially it’s OK, I’m just going to put it down — put something down. And then from there, it will hopefully get better, and when something’s in good shape, I’ll let other people see it.
 
And whatever did you do during the strike? All we heard was that you were “redecorating.”

Well, I moved into a new place last year, so it was kind of bare and empty. So I started to actually furnish it. So I was picketing, and then I did some traveling around Christmas time. I went to Cuba for a week at one point — and I knew the strike was coming to an end, and when we started working, there’d be no downtime for the foreseeable future — so I cashed in my miles and went to London and Paris. And there I broke my foot. . . .