Frank Miller Quotes

Most people think Marv is crazy, but I don't believe that.
I'm no shrink and I'm not saying I've got Marv all figured out or anything, but "crazy" just doesn't explain him. Not to me. Sometimes I think he's retarded, a big, brutal kid who never learned the ground rules about how people are supposed to act around each other. But that doesn't have the right ring to it either. No, it's more like there's nothing wrong with Marv, nothing at all
except that he had the rotten luck of being born at the wrong time in history. He'd have been okay if he'd been born a couple of thousand years ago. He'd be right at home on some ancient battlefield, swinging an ax into somebody's face. Or in a roman arena, taking a sword to other gladiators like him.
They'd have tossed him girls like Nancy, back then. ~ Frank Miller

In ten years, I've never felt so calm. So right. This would be a fine death. . . A fine death. But there are the thousands to think of. . . and Harvey. . . I have to know. ~ Frank Miller

In the comic-book world, there tends to be an overblown sense of tradition. Bad habits die hard. There are ways I think the form could work more effectively if we lost the bad habits that were created before we were born. ~ Frank Miller

Go now, run along and tell your Xerxes that he faces free men here, not slaves ~ Frank Miller

She doesn't quite chop his head off. She makes a Pez dispenser out of him. ~ Frank Miller

His helmet was stifling, it narrowed his vision. And he must see far. His shield was heavy. It threw him off balance. And his target is far away. ~ Frank Miller

You're beginning to get the idea, Clark. We could have changed the world ... now ... look at us ... I've become a political liability ... and ... you ... you're a joke. I want you to remember, Clark ... in all the years to come ... in your most private moments ... I want you to remember ... my hand ... at your throat ... I want ... you to remember ... the one man who beat you. ~ Frank Miller

You sold us out, Clark. You gave them the power that should have been ours. Just like your parents taught you. My parents taught me a different lesson ... lying on this street ... shaking in deep shock ... dying for no reason at all. They showed me that the world only makes sense when you force it to. ~ Frank Miller

Ladies. Gentlemen. You have eaten well. You've eaten Gotham's wealth. Its spirit. Your feast is nearly over. From this moment on ... none of you are safe. ~ Frank Miller

It's not movies and it's not "fine art." The beauty of a comic is that it's clear, direct communication. My work is getting simpler and more cartoony because I'm much more interested in communication now than in any illustrative value. ~ Frank Miller

I moved to New York and was told, "Go back home. We don't need you. Go pump gas. You're from Vermont. We've got no use for you. You're not drawing guys in tights." So, I learned how to draw guys in tights, and I put them in as many crime situations as I could. ~ Frank Miller

It was said Daredevil grew up in Hell's Kitchen, an amazing name for a neighbourhood. But that opened a Pandora's box of all the crime stuff I wanted to do. I borrowed liberally from Will Eisner's 'The Spirit' and turned 'Daredevil' into a crime comic. ~ Frank Miller

I remember Uncle Boysie telling me that Canada was so safe the policemen wore nice red outfits and rode on horses but according to Roy the country was like Gotham City with crooks around every corner… I pictured them as shady Frank Miller characters with bulging muscles and machine guns poking out from trench coats but the photograph from the papers was of a group of boys my age. They kind of resembled some of my friends from Mayaro too. ~ Rabindranath Maharaj

I was always into noir. When I lived in Vermont I was drawing stuff that looked like an amateur doing Sin City. When I first got to New York I was swiftly informed that they only did guys in tights. ~ Frank Miller

It blows my mind the way Frank Miller can write. ~ Brittany Murphy

You were the one they used against us, Bruce. The one who played it rough. When the noise started from the parents' groups and the sub-committee called us for questioning ... you were the one who laughed ... that scary laugh of yours. "Sure, we're criminals", you said. "We've always been criminals". "We have to be criminals".
Kal-El aka Clark Kent aka Superman ~ Frank Miller

Deadly little Miho. She won't let you feel a thing unless she wants you to. She twists the blade. He feels it. ~ Frank Miller

Sometimes the solitary voice can be the best one. ~ Frank Miller

Like everyone else, I love 'Born Again:' that was a seminal work for me. Everything Frank Miller did on 'Daredevil' is like the Bible. ~ Drew Goddard

Where I would fault President Bush the most was that, in the wake of 9/11, he motivated our military, but he didn't call the nation into a state of war. And he didn't explain that this would take though a communal effort against common foe. ~ Frank Miller

People are attempting to bring a superficial reality to superheroes which is rather stupid. They work best as the flamboyant fantasies they are. I mean, these are characters that are broad and big. I don't need to see sweat patches under Superman's arms. I want to see him fly. ~ Frank Miller

i prefer to die on my feet,than live on my knees ~ Frank Miller

When you have a brush in your hand, inking a beautiful woman is a lot like running your hands over her. ~ Frank Miller

I realized that I was about to turn 30, and Batman was permanently 29. And I was going to be damned if I was older than Batman. ~ Frank Miller

I will throw all my best efforts into it, my thoughts and political observations, but ultimately I want to create a narrative that keeps you turning the pages and leaves you with a sense that this thing has a reason for being there. ~ Frank Miller

I don't do a comic book thinking there is a movie. I just want it to be as good a comic book as it can be. ~ Frank Miller

I can tell you squat about Islamism. But I know a lot about Al Quaeda, and they need to burn in hell. ~ Frank Miller

News objectivity is a twentieth-century myth. We only complain about propaganda when we don't agree with it. ~ Frank Miller

As a cartoonist, I'm a caricaturist. First you find out what somebody really looks like, and then you find out what they 'really' look like. ~ Frank Miller

We must not remind them that giants walk the Earth. ~ Frank Miller

Dames. Sometimes all they got to do is let it out and a few buckets later there's no way you'd ever know. ~ Frank Miller

I'll make it. I won't die. I've got too much I have to do to let myself die. ~ Frank Miller

The American conscience died with the Kennedys. ~ Frank Miller

Miho. You're an angel. You're a saint. You're a blessing from above. You're Mother Theresa. You're God. ~ Frank Miller

A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it. ~ Frank Miller

The world doesn't make sense until you force it to. ~ Frank Miller

Too bad I can't afford to patent it.
I can make a fortune.
But again,I have a fortune.
-Batman, Year One comic. ~ Frank Miller

The time has come. You know it in your soul. For I am your soul... You cannot escape me... You are puny, you are small – you are nothing – a hollow shell, a rusty trap that cannot hold me – Smoldering, I burn you – burning you, I flare, hot and bright and fierce and beautiful – You cannot stop me – not with wine or vows or the weight of age – You cannot stop me, but still you try – still you run – You try to drown me out... but your voice is weak... ~ Frank Miller

Comics are so full of amazing work. And I can't look at a drawing of a woman without thinking of, for instance, Wallace Wood and his amazing way of capturing beauty. ~ Frank Miller

When I'm writing a comic book, I'm thinking about a character that I'm going to be drawing on the page. I've never drawn a character to look like who I want to cast in a movie because I don't think that way. I'm a real monomaniac. I do one thing at a time. ~ Frank Miller

In a way, 'Sin City's designed to be paced somewhere between an American comic book and Japanese manga. Working in black and white, I realized that the eye is less patient, and you have to make your point, and sometimes repeat it. Slowing things down is harder in black and white, because there isn't as much for the eye to enjoy. ~ Frank Miller

A man without hope is a man without fear. ~ Frank Miller

Hydarnes: When we attack today, our arrows will blot out the sun!
Leonidas: Good; then we will fight in the shade. ~ Frank Miller

We live in the shadow of crime with the unspoken understanding that we are victims.. of fear, of violence, of social impotence. A man has risen to show us that the power is, ans always has been, in our hands. We are under siege. He's showing us that we can resist. ~ Frank Miller

I think most things I read on the Internet and in newspapers are propaganda. Everyone from the 'New York Times' to Rupert Murdoch has a point of view and is putting forth their own propaganda. They're stuck with the facts as they are, but the way they interpret and frame them is wildly different. ~ Frank Miller

I'm really interested with the way light plays on images and one of the artists that really reawakened my interest in comic books was Frank Miller and his treatment of Daredevil, and then Wolverine and, of course, Batman. ~ James Marsters

Glory?!
Have you gone MAD? There's no glory to be had now! Only retreat -- or surrender -- or death!"

"That's an easy chose for us, arcadian! SPARTANS NEVER RETREAT! SPARTANS NEVER SURRENDER! ~ Frank Miller

I always knew it would come down to you and the big blue school boy. Planet's too big for the BOTH of you. When it all comes down, I want a piece of him. A small piece, will do? For OLD TIMES, sake, you know..it still hurts when its cold. ~ Frank Miller

A trick I picked up from reading Frank Miller scripts: ... He tended to always start his panel caps sometimes with a general noun and a verb. 'He weeps,' and then there'd be whatever else. And a couple of collaborators of mine have always said that the first sentence of my script is for them, and everything else that comes after is for me. Which is true, that's very much how I try to write. The first line is just to get the physical action down, and then I'll kind of drift off into whatever else I see in my head and they can take it or leave it. ~ Matt Fraction

The important information you need at the beginning of an issue. Like way they did the old Frank Miller Daredevil issues in the first five pages he always had to state his origins and how he got his powers. ~ Robert Kirkman

Spartans... tonight we dine in Hell! ~ Frank Miller

A gun is a liar's weapon ~ Frank Miller

Mighty cultures never - are almost never conquered. They crumble from within. And frankly, I think that a lot of Americans are acting like spoiled brats because everything isn't working out perfectly every time. ~ Frank Miller

Give them nothing, but take from them everything. ~ Frank Miller

Remember us,
Should any free soul come across this place,
In all the countless centuries yet to be,
May our voices whisper to you from the ageless stones,
Go tell the Spartans, passerby:
That here by Spartan law, we lie. ~ Frank Miller

You do Batman right, and he's going to be popular. He's a great character. I was once asked by somebody if writing 'Batman' was like holding a Ming vase or something. And I said, 'No, it's like holding a big-ass diamond that you can't break. You can throw him against the ceiling, against the floor, anywhere, and you just can't break Batman.' ~ Frank Miller

Who the hell is Warren Ellis again?"
Hardison gaped at the man. "Only one of the greatest comics writers in the past twenty years. Might as well ask who Alan Moore is, or Frank Miller, or Mark Waid, or Brian Michael Bendis, or Marv Wolfman, or Geoff Johns."

Eliot gave Hardison a blank look as they wove their way through the hall. Parker took the lead, toting a printed sign with her. Eliot and Hardison trailed in her wake. They made a point of striding right past Patronus's booth. They didn't turn to see if he noticed them.

"No one?" Hardison said. "Nothing? Not even Kurt Busiek? Neil Gaiman?"

"I have a life. I do things, active things. I date women."
"Stan Lee?"

Eliot gave Hardison that one with a wag of his head. "Who hasn't heard of Stan Lee?"

"All right," Hardison said with satisfaction. "You had me worried there, man. ~ Matt Forbeck

We [Rodriguez and Frank Miller] wanted to take the movies and turn them into a graphic novel, so that people wouldn't even know what they were looking at. It's still visual storytelling, but it's approached completely different. The two mediums don't have to be separate mediums. They can be one and the same. ~ Robert Rodriguez

We're constantly told that all cultures are equal, and that every belief system is as good as the next. And it led to a kind of - and generally, that America was to be known for its flaws rather than its virtues. ~ Frank Miller

The fundament of a superhero is the guy in tights saving innocent people from bad things. It's amazing how infrequently that seems to happen in superhero comics these days. ~ Frank Miller

Remember, America ... not Wind like a watch, but Wind ... like the air ... ~ Frank Miller

You can't have virtue without sin. What I'm after is having my characters' virtues defined by how they operate in a very sinful environment. That's how you test people. ~ Frank Miller

Hell's waking up every goddamn day and not even knowing why you're here. ~ Frank Miller

DWIGHT:
Stay smart. Stay cool. It's time to prove to you're friends that you're worth a damn.
Sometimes that means dying.
Sometimes it means killing a whole lot of people. ~ Frank Miller

I'm a spoilt brat. I thought I was just going to walk in and make movies. But I'd been my own boss for so long that all of a sudden to be facing a roomful of people who were niggling over every little scene ... I just thought I'd go back and draw my comics and have a happy life. ~ Frank Miller

Nancy's got a guardian angel. Seven feet plus of muscle and mayhem that goes by the name of Marv. ~ Frank Miller

What's happened with computer technology is perfectly timed for someone with my set of skills. I tell stories with pictures. What I love about CGI is that if I can think it, it can be put on the screen. ~ Frank Miller

Working with the kind of talent that I've gotten to work with, like the cast of Sin City, it makes me think probably more fully dimensionally about what is going on behind their eyes. But I draw the way I draw, and ain't nothing gonna change that. Although, I draw Marv and I think, "Boy, I could throw a little Mickey [Rourke] in there." ~ Frank Miller

Alfred: Hmf. I suppose you'll take up flying next, like that fellow in Metropolis. ~ Frank Miller

I'm a comic book artist. So I think to myself, what do I like to draw? I like to draw hot chicks, fast cars and cool guys in trench coats. So that's what I write about. ~ Frank Miller

You've got rights. Lots of rights. Sometimes I count them just to make myself feel crazy. ~ Frank Miller

When you got a condition, it's bad to forget your medicine. ~ Frank Miller

I take his weapons away from him. Both of them. ~ Frank Miller

Hollywood is a town; it's not a medium. And cinema is a medium you can practice anywhere. ~ Frank Miller

I don't own an ounce of the work I've ever done on 'Batman,' and I still work on 'Batman.' I love the character, I think it's a lot of fun, and it's kind of fun to be in that ballpark every once in a while, where you're seeing a different crowd. ~ Frank Miller

The fire, baby. It'll burn us both. There's no place in this world for our kind of fire. My warrior woman. My valkyrie. You'll always be mine. Always. And never. ~ Frank Miller

The noir hero is a knight in blood caked armor. He's dirty and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time. ~ Frank Miller

Cartoonists' dirty secret is that we tend to come up with stories that involve things that are really fun to draw. ~ Frank Miller

What I want to bring back to superheroes with this project is a sense of play. Things have gotten so dreary. The heroes have gotten so ugly that even their muscles have muscles. ~ Frank Miller

Anytime something becomes a success in this way you always get imitators. I'm an imitator of the guys I love. I imitate people like Frank Miller, who is a huge inspiration to me. ~ Mark Millar

'Occupy' is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America. ~ Frank Miller

Worth dying for. Worth killing for. Worth going to hell for.Amen. ~ Frank Miller

I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive. ~ Henry Miller

I'm really grounded and quite hippie, wanting to nurture and have children and be quiet. ~ Sienna Miller

It occurs to me that with all the television people watch, most of their acquaintances are actors. ~ Arthur Miller

I like visual images and there are certainly other bands that have strong visual images going all the way back to Elvis Presley, but it's kind of like that's never really been my bag. Probably because I'm too shy. ~ Frank Black

Nationalization, unmentionable only yesterday, has entered common usage not least because an even scarier word - depression - is next on America's list to avoid. ~ Frank Rich

Don't be seduced into thinking that that which does not make a profit is without value. ~ Arthur Miller

He is lost in Agamemnon and Odysseus' wily double meanings, their lies and games of power. They have confounded him, tied him to a stake and baited him. I stroke the soft skin of his forehead. I would untie him if I could. If he would let me. ~ Madeline Miller

No gentleman ever discusses any relationship with a lady. ~ Keith Miller

A five-year-old Chinese girl knows more about football than I do. ~ Frank Langella

I thought I had swell ideas, and wonderful musicians, but the hell of it, no one else did. ~ Glenn Miller

We don't believe anything unless we can see it. That's just life. ~ Kalista Miller

Right now Von Miller is the best pass rusher in the world. He looks exactly like Derrick Thomas did in his heyday. He can absolutely destroy a football game. ~ Jon Gruden

I drink a fair amount of ramen noodles. ~ T. J. Miller

What evolution tells us is that we are part of a grand, dynamic, and ever-changing fabric of life that covers our planet. Even to a person of faith, in fact especially to a person of faith, an understanding of the evolutionary process should only deepen their appreciation of the scope and wisdom of the creator's work. ~ Kenneth R. Miller

Marriage is the gold standard of all relationships. It's the currency by which everything is valued. ~ Frank Delaney

Eventually I'd like to have a family. I'd like to not be limping around when I'm 50 years old. ~ Bode Miller

The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is, 'All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your fucking mouth shut and hadn't asked any questions. ~ Frank Zappa

Time, the ultimate arbiter of what is of value in life ... ~ Aaron David Miller