I try to write parts for women that are as complicated and interesting as women actually are.

Ephron’s remark frames writing as an ethical and artistic commitment: women on the page should not be simplified into stock types (the ingenue, the nag, the love interest) but rendered with the same contradictions, agency, humor, and interiority found in real life. The line also implies a critique of an industry that often treats “female roles” as narrower than male ones, and positions the writer as responsible for expanding that imaginative range. In practice, it aligns with Ephron’s own screenwriting and directing, where female protagonists are witty, flawed, ambitious, and emotionally complex rather than merely decorative or supportive.