CNN: What's in store for the rest of season three?

Mazzara: All of the pieces are up and running: Woodbury, the prison, The Governor, Michonne, the reintroduction of Merle. Everyone is now onstage. Now it will be interesting to see all of the shifting alliances and all the dynamics. We don't slow down the pace, and we continue to have very high stakes. But we'll see a lot more nuanced character drama and some real interesting personal dilemmas for these characters.

CNN: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe your Twitter (account) said you were writing the final episode of season three while listening to Prince.

Mazzara: That is true. I got into a Prince groove. I was listening to a lot of Prince. What's great about Prince is -- first of all, he's a musical genius. But he plays so many different types of music: R&B and funk, and I have some stuff where he's playing jazz. Listening to Prince is listening to a lot of different types of eclectic music.

CNN: I love the idea that you can get into the head space of writing a very dark episode, and something like "Let's Go Crazy" is on in the background at some point.

Mazzara: Maybe. I don't know if it was ever officially released, but he has a song called "The Undertaker" that's really great to write to.