Brian K. Vaughan Quotes:

Every issue, the characters and I duke it out. They usually win.

Topics: Character, Winning, Issues

After ten years of toiling away in Hollywood, I realized that there's no better place for new ideas than comics.

source: - "SDCC: Brian K. Vaughan is 'Living His Life 22 Pages at a Time'" by Casey Gilly, www.cbr.com. August 02, 2014.

Topics: Years, Ideas, Hollywood

I grew up with a sister I was very close with and a mom who was a powerful influence on my life. I was always close with women.

Topics: Mom, Powerful, Influence

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.

Topics: Thinking, Privacy, Internet

What cruel creatures men are. Our bodies tell us to love so many, but there's room in our hearts for so few.

Topics: Heart, Men, Body

For a lot of arcane shipping reasons, new comics, even digital ones, have a long history of only being released on Wednesdays.

Topics: Long, Digital, Shipping, Arcane

In film, you have the luxury of accomplishing what you need in 24 frames every second. Comics, you only have five or six panels a page to do that.

source: - Interview with Keith Phipps, www.avclub.com. July 27, 2005.

Topics: Luxury, Six, Needs

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

source: - "Comics Q&A: Brian K. Vaughan". Interview with Jeff Jensen, ew.com. February 1, 2008.

Topics: Lying, Writing, Sound

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

Topics: Loyalty, Firsts

Because it's in and about New York City, I knew 'Ex Machina' was going to have to continually mix the mundane and the fantastic.

Topics: New York, Cities, Fantastic

Print and digital comics will always coexist.

Topics: Digital, Print, Coexist

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

source: - "Saga and Y: The Last Man writer Brian K. Vaughan talks about making comics his own way". Interview with Oliver Sava, www.avclub.com. April 11, 2012.

Topics: Smart, Thinking, Trying

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

Topics: Confused, Writing, Self, Make Me Angry

After 9/11, I knew I wanted to write about power and identity and the way Americans on all sides of the political spectrum often mythologize our leaders, which are themes that the superhero genre has always handled really well.

Topics: Writing, Leader, Political, Political Spectrum

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

Topics: Matter, Partnership

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

Topics: Suicide, New York, Mean

My mom once told me that a good relationship isn't where the other person makes you feel better, but where they make *you* better.

Topics: Mom, Feel Better, Good Relationship

Just go out there and get your heart broken in, so it'll be ready when you really need it.

Topics: Heart, Broken, Needs

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

Topics: Love, World, Without You

Victor: You guys have some kind of rallying cry? You know, "Avengers assemble?" "It's clobberin' time?" "Hulk smash?" Nico: "Try not to die.

Topics: Guy, Trying, Kind, Avengers, Rallying Cry

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

source: - Brian K. Vaughan (2009). “Runaways: Pride & Joy”, p.51, Marvel Entertainment

Topics: Fall, Tree, Fruit

Gert: Wake me when the fight scene's over. Kitty Pryde: Oy, tell me about it. Hey, I'm Kitty. You the token pacifist of your group? Gert: Not exactly. Pacifists are like vegans, I'm more of a vegetarian. I enjoy fish and occasional maulings.

Topics: Fighting, Groups, Hey, Pacifist

Sure, this will probably end up being another in a long line of emotionally crippling misadventures...but let's try to have some fun along the way.

Topics: Fun, Long, Trying, Misadventure

Happy endings are bullshit. There are only happy pauses.

Topics: Bullshit, Happy Endings

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

source: - "AICN COMICS!! @$$Holes Interview With Brian K. Vaughan!!". Ain't It Cool interview, www.aintitcool.com. June 22, 2004.

Topics: Artist, Editors, Stories

I've always thought of fantasy as a genre of best-case scenarios, and horror as a genre of worst-case scenarios.

Topics: Fantasy, Horror, Genre, Worst Case Scenario

I just make crap up more than anything else.

Topics: Crap

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

Topics: Angel, Tv Shows, Tvs

Not a word of my writing has ever been changed by another person's hands, and I don't think many screenwriters can say that.

Topics: Writing, Thinking, Hands

Comics are essentially films with fewer frames per second.

source: - "Talking "Y" With BKV: the Brian K. Vaughn Interview" by Nolan Reese, May 21, 2003.

Topics: Film

I, for example, am a pompous asshole, but my comics are genius!

Topics: Example, Genius, Pompous

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.

Topics: Hurt, Easter, Kids, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny

I'm the one who started spreading that particular factoid, about Bendis, Azz and me all being bald Brian's from Cleveland, just to get my name mentioned in the same sentence as two much-better writers, and it's worked like a ***** charm. Next up, I'm going to grow a big, disgusting beard, just so people will start talking about Alan Moore and me in the same breath.

Topics: Talking, Names, Two

Fans of my books have just been supremely nice.

Topics: Nice, Book, Fans

When I was in college, I was belittling the woman who later become my wife for not knowing who Boba Fett was, and she responded by asking me if I knew who the Prime Minister of Israel was. Surprisingly? Not Mon Mothma.

Topics: College, Israel, Knowing, Boba Fett

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.

Topics: Children, Passion, Connections

Life is mostly just learning how to lose.

Topics: Life Is

But nothing warps time quite like childhood

Topics: Childhood, Warp

They hurt you. You hurt 'em back. Or maybe it is the other way around. Whatever. Someday you might find a way to forgive each other. But it won't be like it used to 'cause that pain never really goes away.

Topics: Hurt, Pain, Forgiving

Yeah, that's right. Flee in terror, bitches!

Topics: Yeah, Terror

No. No, first comes boyhood. You get to play with soldiers and spacemen, cowboys and ninjas, pirates and robots. But before you know it, all that comes to an end. And then, Remo Williams, is when the adventure begins.

Topics: Adventure, Cowboy, Play

Once upon a time, each of us was somebody's kid. Everyone had a father, even if he never provided anything more than his seed. Everyone had a mother, even if she had to leave us on a stranger's doorstep. No matter how we're eventually raised, all of our stories begin the exact same way. They all end the same, too.

Topics: Mother, Father, Kids

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

Topics: Inspiration, Wife, Ruth

My parents grew up during the space race, and I think they imagined the future would be us living on moon bases and everyone has rocket shoes.

Topics: Moon, Thinking, Race, Space Race

Fantasy/science-fiction stories have been around almost as long as each genre, but every hybrid now lives in the shadow of 'Star Wars.'

Topics: Stars, War, Long, Fiction Stories

Violence is stupid. Even as a last resort, it only ever begets more of the same.

Topics: Stupid, Lasts, Violence

I sort of jumped out of movies and into the lifeboat of comics. I loved it right away. It was the opposite of film school. Whatever was in my imagination could end up in the finished product. There were just no limitations.

Topics: School, Opposites, Imagination, Lifeboats

That was the appealing thing about comics: There literally is no budget in comics. You're only limited by your imagination.

source: - Interview with Keith Phipps, www.avclub.com. July 27, 2005.

Topics: Imagination

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.

Topics: Jobs, Book, Writing

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

Topics: Mean, Past, People

There are only three forms of high art: the symphony, the illustrated children's book and the board game.

Topics: Art, Children, Book, Board Games, High Art

I don't start a story until I know where it's going to end.

Topics: Stories, Ends

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

Topics: Live Life, Littles, Pages

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

Topics: Book, Color, Imagination

A comic script is basically a love letter from you to your artist,

Topics: Artist, Letters, Scripts, Love Letter

When a man carries an instrument of violence, he'll always find the justification to use it.

Topics: Men, Use, Violence

There are a lot of differing opinions on that. Some people think you should change out more, but I think changing just 20 percent is less stressful on the aquarium and fish. Once you get used to the regimen, it's pretty easy.

Topics: Thinking, Aquariums, People

Reef aquariums are definitely the pinnacle of the hobby.

Topics: Aquariums, Hobbies, Pinnacle, Reefs

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

Topics: Book, Eight, Years

I'm just grateful to finally be telling a story with all females at the lead.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Grateful, Female, Stories

I remember seeing Stand by Me, when I was around 12, and just feeling like, "This is so refreshing to see kids swear and smoke cigarettes like my friends." It just felt much more real than the Sesame Street version of childhood that I'd been spoon-fed.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Real, Kids, Childhood, Stand By Me, Sesame Street

It's just people who grew up in that time are suddenly old enough to be creators themselves, but I think they have a little perspective. I'm 40 now, and I have children of my own. Before I forget my own childhood completely, I want to take some time to take a look at the '80s and think back.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Children, Thinking, People

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.

source: - "In a Galaxy Far, Far Away From Comic Book Bigotry, Black and Queer Heroes Rule". Interview with Miles E. Johnson, www.motherjones.com. December 17, 2015.

Topics: Crazy, Heart, People, Hearts Desire

I've been fortunate enough to travel to comic conventions in Portugal, France, Canada, and it's an honor to get to meet people from all over the world.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: People, Honor, World, Portugal

I think some people are just very passionate that things remain the way they were when they were kids.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: Kids, Thinking, People

There's a lot of fiction from that period that we're nostalgic for.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Fiction, Nostalgic, Periods

Well, I always talk about how I used to work at an insane asylum and stuff, which is true, but to be honest, I just make crap up more than anything else.

source: - "AICN COMICS!! @$$Holes Interview With Brian K. Vaughan!!". Interview with Cormorant, www.aintitcool.com. June 22, 2004.

Topics: Crap

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

source: - "AICN COMICS!! @$$Holes Interview With Brian K. Vaughan!!". Interview with Cormorant, www.aintitcool.com. June 22, 2004.

Topics: Angel, Tv Shows, Tvs, Cliffhanger

People just want good stories.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: People, Stories, Want

To try and imagine that I'm another person is always going to be hard - whether I'm writing about a truck driver or someone who is gay, who's trans, who is of a different ethnicity or creed. But it would be boring if I always had to write about myself and my limited viewpoint.

source: - "In a Galaxy Far, Far Away From Comic Book Bigotry, Black and Queer Heroes Rule". Interview with Miles E. Johnson, www.motherjones.com. December 17, 2015.

Topics: Writing, Gay, Ethnicity, Trans, Truck Driver

I've never gotten anything but support and thanks from people for having diverse books.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: Book, People, Support

There's just something about that late '80s that suddenly feels like it has something to teach us.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Late, Teach, Feels

We're not trying to be deliberately frustrating, but we are laying the tracks for a mystery, and it's one that we have all figured out. We wanted this to be kind of like the way that Cliff [Chang] and I felt about the Cold War in the '80s when we were 12.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: War, Track, Trying

It was interesting looking back at the '80s and trying to find newspaper headlines from the time - the cliché of history repeating itself.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Interesting, Trying, History Repeats Itself, Repeating History, Newspaper Headlines

As you get older you start to see these events and leaders, and movements of the pendulum swinging back.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Leader, Events, Movement

Each collected edition of Paper Girls that we put out will largely be set in an entirely different era.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Girl, Different, Paper, Different Eras

I like things that are weirdly imaginative and couldn't be real, but I also like stories that are recognizable and relatable.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: Real, Stories, Imaginative, Relatable

I love that the book [Paper Girls ] gets to kind of evolve and change in each era. Our third storyline is our best so far.

Topics: Girl, Book, Paper

The longer I've been writing scripts, the more I find that you have to give the artist more leeway or else you'll just be disappointed. You can't force them to draw every image that's in your head. Since I'm a horrific artist, I wouldn't want them to anyway. So I definitely give them a lot more leeway now than I did at the beginning.

source: - Source: www.avclub.com

Topics: Writing, Artist, Giving

I think a lot of creators are attracted to those toys they got to play with when they were young, and everyone wants to write a Superman story or a Batman story or a Spider-Man story. I don't know, if it's been successful for me, it should be successful for anyone. "Hit the ground with your feet running" is the secret of breaking new characters when it seems like no one else is having any luck.

source: - Source: www.avclub.com

Topics: Running, Character, Writing

I genuinely am sort of an emotionally stunted man-child, so if I just write to the top of my intelligence, it sounds like a teenager. I like being around teenagers. It's good for drama; they feel everything much more intensely than adults do, their lives are much more interesting than ours. They're mutants. They have these weird bodies that are rebelling against them and changing every day. Teenagers always equal good drama.

source: - Source: www.avclub.com

Topics: Teenager, Drama, Writing

I'm still digesting the '90s. It takes some time to get perspective.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Perspective, Stills

I just want to take a realistic look now, now that we have enough distance.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Distance, Looks, Want

I realized that for fantasy and science fiction, especially from my youth, white was the default. Luke Skywalker was in the lead, or even if you were a hobbit, you're going to be white. That was an extremely old-fashioned, obviously really narrow-minded way to look at things.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: White, Looks, Fiction

Immigration confuses and terrifies me, so why not try to write a comic and make some sense of it?

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: Writing, Trying, Immigration

I've never had any interest in retelling stories from my youth.

source: - Source: www.motherjones.com

Topics: Stories, Youth, Retelling

We describe [Paper Girls] as Stand By Me meets Terminator.It's a story about nostalgia and childhood, but with an action-packed, sci-fi bent.

Topics: Girl, Childhood, Stand By Me

I've written about teenage heroes before, on Marvel's Runaways, and I remember at the time when I pitched it, it was a team that had more female members than males. Even that caused of much discussion about, "Will there be a market for this, and should there at least be equal number of male and females?"

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Teenage, Team, Hero

I grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland in 1988 and there was just one year where suddenly all of the delivery kids that used to be boys were suddenly girls. It happened at our church too. Altar boys were suddenly altar girls. There was just this sense that all these young women knew there were openings here to be the first of their kind.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Girl, Kids, Boys

These are the young women [in Stand by Me] that we grew up knowing and hopefully they feel a little rough around the edges, because it's true to life.

Topics: Knowing, True Life, Stand By Me

We're always looking roughly 30 years behind us. In the '80s they were obsessed with the '50s and so on.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Years, Obsessed, Behinds

We've all seen lots of stories about a young protagonist having adventures, and usually they're all boys, [and] there is sometimes a token female, or two.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Adventure, Boys, Two, Protagonists

There's a lot of dark stuff from the '80s that we don't think about.

source: - "Paper Girls: Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang talk Volume 2". Interview With Nivea Serrao, ew.com. November 29, 2016.

Topics: Dark, Thinking, Stuff

I know I'm a grumpy old man, but I'm always more delighted by readers talking about the actual comics than people talking about how eager they are to have their favorite comics be "elevated" into another medium. Adaptations are great, but for me, comics have always been the destination, not a stepping-stone to get somewhere else.

Topics: Men, People, Adaptation, People Talking