Brian K. Vaughan Quotes

Here's the thing about miscarriage. They are painful, they are horrific, and they are very, very common. There are no funerals for Those Who Might Have Been, leaving parents to mourn their loss in strange and unexpected ways. But while a miscarriage may feel like the end of the world... it's actually just the beginning of a new one.

Sorry, ladies. I guess that's our cue. We like to storm into town, inflict maximum damage, and then disappear ... like a KISS concert.

When I wrote 'Runaways,' I was a naive kid who thought that all parents were evil. Now that I'm a wise old man with children of my own, I am certain that all parents are evil.

Anyone with an autobiography is almost definitely an evil piece of shit.

But you have gift!"
"Gift? I was electrocuted and disfigured, and now I think my fucking television is talking to me. That's called schizophrenia.

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It's cool because I think 'Ex Machina' is a little bit under the radar, which is always when I do my best work - when I feel like no one's paying attention.

A child isn't a symbol, it's a child! It needs applesauce and, and, and playpens and an ass-load of other things we can't provide while we're on the goddamn lam!
Just to be clear. Your exact words to me were: "Please shoot it in my twat."
Yeah. I know.

It's time to climb off our high horses and step into the shit.

You'd never be able to convince someone to give you money to do a bilingual story where you're not translating half of it - you'd drive people crazy. But in comics, you can do whatever your heart desires.

I write the book for one person - for Fiona [Staples, the artist]. I spend a lot of time just thinking how she'll react to things and manipulating her into drawing perverse, horrific things. It's a really weird job but I enjoy it.

I was pretty good at picking up new languages when I was little, but it's not like I had superpowers or anything.
Kids just have an easier time with words.

I'm really happiest living life 22 pages at a time and putting things in little boxes on pages.

Comics brought me to the dance. It'll always be my first loyalty.

The only action that has vaster repercussions for the universe than making a life is TAKING one... which is why I'll never understand why most people put so little foresight into doing either.

I mean, do you know what you get when you call a suicide hotline in New York city? A busy signal. Literally.

If there's an opposite of a honeymoon, it's the week after a couple's first child is born.

Once you get past the scales and the blindfold, Justice is a woman with a sword.

I have no imagination; I just steal from life and change the color. Then it's a comic book.

I was only ever part of 'Lost' - a very small part of an extremely talented writers' room, where as a writer, it's sort of your job to sublimate your ego and work in the service of the show and the show's voice.

Having children changes you forever, as a writer and as a human being. I hope it's for the better on both counts, but I guess we'll see.

If a good editor will let me tell my story with the right artist, I'm happy.

Have you ever been shot by one? Because I have and it hurt like the day my dog died ...

I'm not afraid of the world. I'm afraid of a world without you.

Your moon is always full, android. You Earthlings have such limited perspective.

Brubaker and Phillipss books have always been about eight years ahead of their time.

Okay, is anyone else worried that some of the fruit didn't fall far enough away from the tree?

I guess my journey with comics began with stuff like Spider-Man and Batman. I started off with mainstream superhero stuff, which I've never abandoned.

Not many people read my stuff, but I really like the ones that do.

Some general advice about writing:
WRITE MORE, DO OTHER STUFF LESS.

Gert: What ... what just happened?
Chase: I don't know, but guess who totally stole Cookie Monster's glasses!
Gert: Whew, for a second there, I was worried we almost learned something.
Chase: Ooo, look at me! I'm a big fluffy nerd!

Every kid gets "programmed" by their 'rents, Chase. That doesn't mean they have to do as they're told.

No, only villains try to change the whole world. The rest of us take it one person at a time.

I start with something that makes me angry or confused, and then I write about it. It's a form of self-help.

I'm not going to stand here and be eaten by some bitch's dinosaur. I am finally doing something with my life.

I think there is a possible future where maybe we do just take a hard turn away from the Internet and we do start valuing our privacy again.

I was embarrassingly well-versed in Marvel lore, so it was pretty easy to slip into that world. But really, already, by the time I'd started writing superhero comics, my dream was really to be writing my own characters.

It was a time of war.
Isn't it always.

I never want readers to be comfortable, to feel like we're in a comedy or a drama. Life is never just one of those things. Life is a balance of all those things.

Admit it, you're probably a very different person at work than you are at home.
Everyone needs to be someone else sometimes.

Fuck the Bureau! Their entire outfit is half the size of the NYPD. I've got more officers who speak Arabic in one precinct that you guys have in the entire D.O.D.!

I never like to talk about my own politics, but whether you're left, right or center, the 2008 race was definitely good drama.

If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, then a family is more like a rope. We're lots of fragile little strands, and we survive by becoming hopelessly intertwined with each other.

I don't think I have discipline when it comes to anything.

Some parents let their young kids win at games, but mine never did.
I don't think it was because they were particularly competitive, they just wanted to teach me a valuable lesson.
Life is mostly just learning how to lose.

Anyone who thinks one book has all the answers hasn't read enough books.

You girls ... reminded us ... of us ...
... kids just trying ... to make a living ...
are always ... the good guys ...

Your writing blows, by the by. You split more infinitives than Gene Roddenberry.

Stupid old boys' network ... That's why we're not running the world, huh, girlie? 'Cause when women see a younger version of us, it just makes us angry.

Every relationship is an education.
Each new person we welcome into our hearts is a chance to evolve into something radically different than we used to be.

Fans of my books have just been supremely nice.

Rock beats scissors, bitch.

All writing is the same: It's just making up lies until it starts to sound like the truth. That's what I do.

Ray: What else did they get rid of, truth, justice and the American way?
Leto jr.: Nah, truth ended when they shot M.L.K.. The American way died over in Vietnam.
Mitch: And Justice?
Leto jr.: Shit, man, there's no justice ... There's just us.

Suck my hemorrhoids!

Print and digital comics will always coexist.

Trust me, this whole freakout is probably just hormonal. You only gave birth, what, a week ago? Your body's still, like, a wasteland of chemical imbalance.

If you find someone who can forgive all your bullshit ... the least you can so is try to forgive them.

Some dreams really do come true. That said, most dreams are weird as shit.

Oh God. Goddammit. I never got to see the pyramids. Or the Taj Mahal. I ... I never even got to leave the country."
"Don't sweat it, brother. You got to live in NYC. You didn't miss shit.

Here's the thing, everybody loves babies ... but only in very, VERY small doses.

The world is a terrifying place, more than I ever realized. But if I had my whole life to do over again, that's literally the only thing I'd change. I'd stop being so afraid of other people.

I am a big theater fan. It's mostly just being pretentious, I think, and trying to look smart.

When you're dead set on doing the right thing, sometimes it's hard to recognize that you're doing it in the wrong way.

After years of pitched battles, my father was ready for a significantly less stressful career. Unfortunately, he decided to try raising a girl.

Belay that fuckery.

Though we can never guarantee our people complete safety, we can send a message to those who seek to harm the free and the brave. You might knock us to the ground but you sure as hell won't keep us there.

You know, for a pacifist, you sure beg to get stabbed a lot

The only way the dead live on is through the people they leave behind.

I guess i'm just haunted by all that potential energy.

They can't hurt us, you big babies! We're intangible! Why are you guys acting like you just died yesterday?

I wanted to correct her, but if I'd learned one thing by that point in my education, it was that when anybody in these cruel worlds offers a helping hand... you shut your fucking mouth and grab it.

Forgive me if I don't take relationship advice from a dead teenager missing her vagina.

I wanted to write a story about a future where everyone has a secret identity, in part because the Internet no longer exists.

Granny used to describing giving your life as "ultimate sacrifice", but I don't know about that. Dying is definitely the LAST sacrifice you can make, but sometimes, it's your first one that sets the tone for everything that follows.

It doesn't matter who started it or what it's really about ... war usually ends up sucking most for women. Even when we're not fighting the battles ourselves, we somehow always end up with the lion's share of the suffering.

Welcome to Abortion Town!

Doubt can paralyze you, can make you not want to do anything. But if you learn to channel it, to turn those feelings away from yourself and out at the world you can doubt what's impossible.

By the time they're out of preschool, most children have already seen thousands of acts of violence.

I love doing research. I'm a film-school geek.

Your own creations are your own children; you gave life to them, so you'll always have, if not more passion to them, more connections to them.

Futur is a threat, not a promise

Dying is one of the few experiences we'll eventually all enjoy firsthand, and like most shit that's commonplace, it's boring to dwell on.

Dude, are you kidding? You're kinda annoying, but you're probably the only person on Earth who always thinks about other people first. I don't care what shape you are ... you're totally my sister now.

Anticipation and dread aren't opposites, just different versions of the same game. Both involve knowing that something is going to happen, but not knowing when. And whether you end up winning or losing, you at least get to reach a conclusion. There's always some comfort in that.

Christ, I walk through an inferno unscatched, then singe my ass on the flight back."
[ ... ]
"You guys are the ... the heart and brain of the Great Machine."
"Yeah? Then you're the inflamed anus."
"You're not the brain, by the way.

It's TV shows like BUFFY and ANGEL that usually have an incredible cliffhanger every commercial break that amaze me.

The Government's supposed to be there for people when nobody else is, right? But it never works like that.

Well, at first I was thinking we could challenge them to a few rounds of Scattergories, but then I realized fighting would be way more emotionally satisfying. -Buffy

I love other movies that have been made since, but I think more than any comic book movie, 'Superman' just totally seemed to capture superheroes in ways that others have not.

The biggest inspiration for everything I do is, of course, my wife, playwright Ruth McKee.

Some people are haunted by their pasts, but not my family. I mean, how can you be haunted by something that never really dies?

Faith and science can be friends, but they make for a disastrous marriage.

Some people hate waiting, but not me. Without anticipation, life can be comfortable, but it'll never be thrilling. Instant gratification is for boring assholes.

Dude, your husband is gonna die!

Doesn't matter if it's personal or professional, a good partnership takes work.

How is it possible that our parents lied to us?"
"Lets see: Santa, the Tooth Fairy,the Easter bunny,um, God. You're the prettiest kid in school. This wont hurt a bit. Your face will freeze like that ... "
"Everythings going to be alright.

You're right that not everything we do has to have some kind of social agenda, but that doesn't mean it can only be anesthetizing crap.

Younger writers are always looking for "blurbs," one of the few words that sounds exactly as awful as the crime it's describing.

Over the years, we met every kind of person imaginable. But no one makes worse first impressions than writers.

Anyone can kill you, but it takes someone you know to really HURT you.