J. Michael Straczynski famous quotes

Life isn't about the final moments, it's about the journey, it's about process. What makes 'Rocky' work as a movie is seeing him working his way up from the streets to the arena and the fight of his life. You could just show that fight, and it would be great, but seeing that journey illuminates that fight and adds profound meaning to it.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Fighting #Journey #Profound

I have friends in different parts of the world, and they'll all go online at the same time and all pull up a movie and hit play, at the same moment, and then they'll comment to each other about it. They're sharing an experience, even though they're on different parts of the planet.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Play #Different #World

Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say.Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world -- "No, YOU move.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Country #Jobs #Believe

You can only have one voice on set, and that has to be the director.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Voice #Directors

People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Time #Past #People

On most TV shows, you work on a set and do some location.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Tv Shows #Location #Tvs

Avoid the tyranny of the reasonable voice...it will guarantee a complacency of never trying anything adventurous...
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Voice #Trying #Guarantees

I want to have time. When you're doing a monthly book, you're like a man racing after a bus. You're breathless and red-faced. I want to build in quality control.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Book #Men #Racing

The quality of our thoughts is bordered on all sides by our facility with language.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Communication #Quality #Sides

I think for any writer, creating and controlling your own property is the ultimate dream.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Dream #Thinking #Creating

When in doubt, blow something up.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Writing #Blow #Doubt

I'm all for crossovers if they benefit the individual books.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Book #Benefits #Individual

Like everyone else, I am going to die. But the words - the words live on for as long as there are readers to see them, audiences to hear them. It is immortality by proxy. It is not really a bad deal, all things considered.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Writing #Long #Immortality

When you walk into a movie theater, you don't walk out half-way through, and then come back the next day to watch the rest of it.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Watches #Half #Way

Never follow somebody else's path; it doesn't work the same way twice for anyone... the path follows you and rolls up behind you as you walk, forcing the next person to find their own way.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Life #Path #Behind You

Half-way through any big project, everyone forgets what they're doing.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Half #Way #Forget

As kids, we spontaneously sing and dance and tell stories, and along the way, someone comes and says, 'No. You shouldn't be doing that.' And we slowly begin to unlearn our passions. I think you have to hold on to those things.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Passion #Kids #Thinking

I've worked on high visibility shows that weren't always the best, and low visibility shows that I love but that didn't have the PR behind them.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Visibility #Lows #Shows

Follow your passion. The rest will attend to itself. If I can do it, anybody can do it. It's possible. And it's your turn. So go for it. It's never too late to become what you always wanted to be in the first place.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Passion #Too Late #Firsts

A lot of television tends to assume that audiences don't have the attention span or the IQ to follow a lot of stuff.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Attention #Television #Stuff

For a lot of people, Superman is and has always been America's hero. He stands for what we believe is the best within us: limitless strength tempered by compassion, that can bear adversity and emerge stronger on the other side. He stands for what we all feel we would like to be able to stand for, when standing is hardest.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Hero #Believe #Adversity

People in a cluster are bound to each other automatically, and can see each other automatically.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#People

All love is unrequited. All of it.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Unrequited Love #Love Is #Unrequited

Understanding is a three-edged sword. Your side, my side, and the truth.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Your Side #Understanding #Three

I'm delirious with joy. It proves that if you confront the universe with good intentions in your heart, it will reflect that and reward your intent. Usually. It just doesn't always do it in the way you expect.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Heart #Joy #Way

Take care, don't fight, and remember: if you do not choose to lead, you will forever be led by others. Find what scares you, and do it. And you can make a difference, if you choose to do so.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Leadership #Fighting #Differences

You can't always relate to the big action things, but you can relate to small moments.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Action #Moments #Bigs

Science fiction shows are traditionally about the gimmick or the gadget and tend to be emotionally cool to the touch.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Fiction #Gadgets #Gimmicks

Budget grows out of the story. If you're writing a story with people caught in an elevator for most of the film, you're pretty sure it won't be a $200 million movie.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Writing #People #Stories

When you're writing a story in bits and pieces, month in and month out, there really isn't time or space for reflection, no room to learn what those scripts had to teach you.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Writing #Reflection #Space

Captain John Sheridan: I wish I had your faith in the universe. I just don't see it. Delenn: Then I will tell you a great secret, Captain. Perhaps the greatest of them all. The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station , and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are starstuff. We are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out. And as we have both learned, sometimes the universe requires a change of perspective.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Stars #Perspective #Secret

You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Life #Thinking #Awful

I'm all for teaching creation and allowing prayers in schools, as soon as scholars begin teaching Darwinism and geometry in church.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Prayer #Teaching #School

We know that if memory is destroyed in one part of the brain, it can be sometimes re-created on a different part of the brain. And once we can unravel that amino chain of chemicals that is responsible for memory, I see no reason why we can't unlock it and, essentially, wipe out what's there.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Memories #Brain #Different

We are in a tech-heavy society, plunging headlong into an unknown future. Science fiction is what allows you to stand back and analyze the impact of that and put it in context of how it affects people.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Impact #People #Fiction

If there’s any other message in this to readers, it’s in these two characters as icons of hope, that it doesn’t make any difference where you come from, or where you went to school, or who you are, there’s hope. That a kid from Jersey with Superman as the icon that kept him alive for years would one day end up writing the character is as absoutely unlikely as it is utterly inevitable. And if that’s true for me, it’s true for you, if you follow your dreams and your passions in full flight. Don’t give up. No Limits. It’s never too late to learn to fly.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Dream #Giving Up #School

To have someone like Clint Eastwood come along and shoot your first draft as written is just any screenwriter's dream. And Clint is very straightforward. If it's good enough to get his attention, it's good enough to produce.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Dream #Attention #Firsts

There was a point when comics were considered to be mainly of interest to kids, and it was decided that kids could relate more to someone their own age than an adult. So suddenly all these previously grownup comics were lousy with sidekicks: Aquagirl, Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy, Stripesy... the list goes on.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Kids #Age #Lists

As an atheist, I believe that all life is unspeakably precious, because it’s only here for a brief moment, a flare against the dark, and then it’s gone forever.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Atheist #Believe #Dark

When a book of mine comes out, I instantly go hunting the net, not for praise, but for criticism, because that's how you learn, from people who don't have to be polite to you.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Book #Hunting #People

The more important the emotion is, the fewer words required to express it: Will you go out with me? I think I like you. I care for you. I love you. Marry me. Goodbye.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Goodbye #I Like You #Love You

Writers write for one reason: to create an emotion in the reader, to reach across and make them feel something. You want a reaction. Yeah, it's nicer when the reaction is to throw flowers than it is to throw brickbats, but you have to accept both equally.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Flower #Writing #Want

We walk in dark places no others will enter. We stand on the bridge and no one may pass. We live for the One. We die for the One. -- the Ranger oath
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Dark #Bridges #May

They told us not to wish in the first place, not to aspire, not to try; to be quiet, to play nice, to shoot low and aspire not at all. They are always wrong. Follow your dreams. Make your wishes. Create the future. And above all, believe in yourself.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Dream #Nice #Believe

We are not powerless. We have tremendous potential for good or ill. How we choose to use that power is up to us; but first we must choose to use it. We're told every day, You can't change the world. But the world is changing every day. Only question is who's doing it? You or somebody else?
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Use #World #Firsts

It is not for the gods to decide whether or not Man exists - it is for Man to decide whether or not the gods exist.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Men #God Exists

When writers don't know what to do with a character, they build up the supporting cast and universe to kind of hide that fact. After a while, you can no longer see the character for the underbrush. When that happens, you need to bring out the weed-whacker to clear some of that away so you can focus on the main character.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Weed #Character #Focus

If your going to have delusions, you might as well go for the really satisfying ones.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Might #Delusion #Wells

I like to consider my mind an open door. It's just not a revolving door.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Doors #Mind #Revolving Doors

When it comes down to it, the reason that science fiction endures is that it is, at its core, an optimistic genre. What it says at the end of the day is that there is a tomorrow, we do go on, we don't extinguish ourselves and leave the planet to the cockroaches.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Optimistic #The End Of The Day #Goes On

When I saw Wonder Woman being constantly put in positions where she'd get tied up with her own rope, or held hostage, even as a kid, my reaction was 'C'mon, she's too smart for that.'
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Smart #Kids #Wonder Woman

There can always be new beginnings... even for people like us.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#New Beginnings #People

If sacred places are spared the ravages of war... then make all places sacred. And if the holy people are to be kept harmless from war... then make all people holy.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#War #People #Sacred

When the Seinfeld show said it was going to be a show about nothing, everybody said it couldn't - wouldn't work. It did. Thor is about something, about that character finding his destiny, but it's not doing what was expected... and yet it's doing very well.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Character #Destiny #Said

The sky was full of stars, and every star an exploding ship.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Stars #War #Sky

It was the dawn of the third age of mankind...
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#War #Age #Dawn

At its heartmeat core, writing is about exploring the questions of your heart on the assumption that what intrigues you, what inflames or amuses or ennobles you, will have the same effect on someone else. It's about taking chances, and taking risks, and pushing yourself to be honest in the issues that present themselves.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Writing #Heart #Issues

I always knew that I was going to be a writer. There was no question in my mind about that.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Mind

Whenever you write for someone else, you're always aware - sometimes overtly, other times at an almost cellular, subliminal level - of the rules about what you can and can't do.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Writing #Levels #Sometimes

I wake up every morning knowing how ridiculously lucky I am to be able to do what I love for a living, and that sense of wonder never, ever wears off.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Morning #Knowing #Lucky

Stun settings are for people who can't commit.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#People #Commit

To understand this whole area, you have to stop thinking like a viewer and start thinking like a network programming exec.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Thinking #Television #Programming

If every violent program in the nation were blipped off the air for 48 hours, and replaced by reruns of the 'Donna Reed Show', there would not be one less death in South Central LA. At most you'd have several more incidents of people shooting out their TVs.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Air #People #Television

Find what scares you and do it.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Scare

A good story should provoke discussion, debate, argument...and the occasional bar fight.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Fighting #Bars #Stories

There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope. The death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Dream #War #Fighting

Never follow somebody else's path; it doesn't work the same way twice for anyone.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Way #Path

When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree by the river of truth, and tell the whole world 'No, You Move.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Jobs #Moving #Rivers

What are the purposes and priorities of teaching? . . . First, to inspire. Second, to challenge. Third, and only third, to impart information.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Teaching #Priorities #Challenges

My philosophy: find what it is you want to say, walk in the room, say it, and get the hell out.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Philosophy #Want #Rooms

I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks the use of an angelic (or seemingly angelic character), whose likes have been written about for, oh, about 4,000 years, is ripping off Star Trek, has his head so thoroughly up his ***** as to have blipped into an entirely new intestinally-based reality and desperately needs to get a wider frame of reference.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Stars #Sorry #Character

I've changed my mind. I've decided that at the end I want to be cremated and my ashes scattered over someone I don't like.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Mind #Ashes #Want

Did Alan Moore get screwed on his contract? Of course. Lots of people get screwed, but we still have Spider-Man and lots of other heroes.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Hero #Men #People

NEVER SURRENDER DREAMS If we are to be who we are; if we are to accomplish great things; then we must learn the heart's most essential rule: NEVER SURRENDER DREAMS
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Dream #Heart #Essentials

No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Learning #Army #Government

There are people in life, who show you how to live. There are people in life, who show you how to die.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Life #People #Shows

I have this theory that the more important and intimate the emotion, the fewer words are required to express it. For instance in dating: 'Will you go out with me?' Six words. 'I really care for you.' Five words. 'You matter to me' Four words. 'I love you.' Three words. 'Marry me.' Two words. Well, what's left? What's the one most important and intimate word you can ever say to somebody? 'Goodbye...'
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Life #Goodbye #Love You

Greatness is never appreciated in youth, called pride in midlife, dismissed in old age, and reconsidered in death. Because we cannot tolerate greatness in our midst, we do all we can do destroy it.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Appreciation #Pride #Greatness

Faith and reason are the shoes on your feet. You can travel further with both than you can with just one.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Shoes #Feet #Reason

The problem with writing a monthly book is that you're going through your work like a man running for a bus, red-faced and out of breath. There isn't time for reflection or critical self-examination.
-- J. Michael Straczynski

#Running #Book #Writing