"I feel that this woman, as a psychology teacher, is opposing teaching the standard curriculum, that her heart is really on the cutting edge of science. And I would imagine that she envisions herself as a serious research scientist, who has not received the recognition that she really deserves. "

"And that Riley, her teaching assistant, is really the child that she never had, the son that she's proud of, and probably a little confusion as to whether he's a potential... something, for her. Slightly out of her reach, but she'd like to prevent anybody else, certainly, from being interested in him. So I think that she puts herself in direct competition with Buffy there. For his affection."

"What's fun about Maggie is that she's such an extremist. That's fun. And I think she has a vision of what she wants to do. Dr. Frankenstein is a sort of a predecessor for her, whom I'm sure she admires. Or Einstein, I don't know, she probably has a mix of those. I think she feels that she's testing the boundaries, and I think any human being always feels that they're doing something important, no matter what they are."

"I've always imagined that Maggie treats people like grown-ups, that she doesn't want to live in a world of babies, she doesn't have time for it. So even in her classroom, she treats her kids like grown-ups. And they see her as cruel, or heartless, or demanding, or rigid, or whatever, but she's I think, simply really pulling them up by treating them like, 'Well, you don't get your paper in on time, you're not in my class anymore. How else would you want the world to be?' She doesn't have time for playing games. And I think that's her persona. (...) Joss and I never talked about what exactly drove her to that cause. But I think that human connection is defined in a very different way by Maggie than by most people. And I think the Initiative is her baby, her glory child. Creating Adam."

"The thing I like about her, especially in the classroom, is she's no-nonsense, and she seems to be a real teacher. And I think the most complicated situation for her is having Riley fall in love with Buffy. I think finding out that Buffy's the Slayer is kind of a gas, and it's nervous-making and exciting for Maggie to have people on her team. I think she's like a president, you know, she wants a great cabinet underneath her. That's a reflection on her. She claims she's not narcissistic, but I think she did protest a bit much. I think she really would like to fashion the world in her image. But I think Buffy puts a wrench in the works there. She's faced with something, a gray area that's difficult to handle. But I like her caustic nature. She's not a mean person, she's just a straight-out scientist. So she's more clinical. It's someone's interpretation that she's mean."

-- Lindsay Crouse, in the "Watcher's Guide, Vol 2"

"Actually, there were a lot of things we were going to do and never did. More recently, in season four, Maggie (Lindsay Crouse) was going to be much more of a mother figure for Riley, introducing him to another girl to lure him away from Buffy. We thought it would create some Shakespearean jealousy."

-- Marti Noxon in an interview on EW.com

"I don't think Joss had envisioned Maggie Walsh as being entirely villainous. As opposed to just sort of misguided. And I think she takes a turn into villainy in this single episode [The "I" in Team]. The tricky part was not making it so abrupt, but to kind of make it understandable ow she could suddenly become this villain."

-- David Fury, in the "Watcher's Guide, Vol 2"