Top 101 Quotes & Sayings by Paul Dini - Page 2

Nobody loves a good 'Batman' story more than I do.

Jim Henson once allowed me to visit the Muppets on set and spent an entire day showing me how he and the other puppeteers performed Kermit and all the characters! After that, I was lucky enough to work with both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on many fun animation projects and learned so much from them.

A lot of times, female characters - particularly the villains - come off as very one-dimensional. They get the short shrift in that they're only given the snappy comeback, or they're relegated to a very stereotypical role. I want to know what's driving them - that's what's really interesting.

Hugo Strange is interesting in the sense that he's a master manipulator. He doesn't really engage Batman in any sort of physical way. His weapon is his mind, and he's very incisive and clever: he reads people and sizes them up almost instantly.

The Joker is a tremendous vehicle for talented actors. Cesar Romero's was a bubbly, lunatic criminal. Nicholson did him as a vain, preening manipulator. Heath's performance of the Joker was remarkable, too. His was a low-simmering crazy street clown. Joker can be played all these ways, and they're all true.

You don't have a Batman without Bruce Wayne. Batman is the edge or scary image for Bruce to use.

I was working in cartoons. I could go to Comic-Con, buy the Hal Jordan ring, I could buy animation cels, but at the end of the day, I come back to an empty apartment. I had a life that was only around me, and when I was broken, my world was broken.

If your child has something creative they really want to do, it's up to you, their parent, to help make that happen.

I remembered what it was like: the weirdness, being the odd man out, trying to make my way around campus, and trying to figure out who my friends would be, who to steer clear of. I wrote it all down in a fanciful way - the feelings of alienation, the feelings of uncertainty, of being away from home for the first time.

The agents of S.M.A.S.H. are the most powerful team in the Marvel universe in terms of muscle power.

I wouldn't call the Joker exactly easy to write.

I get it, cops deal with a lot, but at the same time, we crave justice, and we do want to believe things are going to be all right.

I grew up loving cartoons, comics, magic, and writing.

If everybody's a winner, nobody has to try very hard.

I remember when I saw 'The Dark Knight' movie, and I was sitting there watching it, and there actually came one or two places where I had trouble divorcing myself from the reality of the locations because it was filmed in Chicago, and I know that city quite well.

That's the thing about writing for a lot of the villains is that, as a writer, you kind of have to put the best part of your own personality aside and instead focus on whatever little strange quirks you may have in your personality.

Everybody looks back on what they studied and what they grew up with.

There was a time I was willing to be a clown for people who I felt were the perfect person for me.

One of the things I've learned from animation is that some guys are really good at writing, some guys are really good at design, some guys are really good at directing. It's almost like working in a band - not everybody plays every instrument.

'Jingle Belle' spins out of my love for just sitting down and reading a good, fun Sunday morning comic strip panel.

We had established Harley Quinn as an accomplice to the Joker who was also crushing on him and found herself in the middle of this weird relationship being at the beck and call of his every whim. We wanted to stretch her and make her a stronger character, so to have her leave him and go off on her own was a story I wanted to tell for a while.

Jeph Loeb has been great to work with, and he's been really supportive of some really bizarre ideas I've had.

In 'Batman Beyond,' Terry McGinnis has the responsibility of protecting Gotham City, as well as maintaining a home and social life. He's also got a single mom and a pesky younger brother, which young kids will relate to.

I think that when you've got a world in which it's plausible to have a guy dressed as a giant bat and fight evil clowns and other nightmarish freaks, I think the world has to be visually a little more arresting than a regular world.

'Batman Beyond' started because we were tossed a curve, because the higher ups at Warner Bros. wanted a different take on him.

If 'Jingle Belle' harkens back to anything, it's sort of the Harvey Comics. Not really 'Archie,' but more of a teenage version of what Harvey Comics would have become, with the type of fantasy wonderland of her and her various friends.

I'm always thinking about stories and ideas, and I have a few I'd like to actively pursue, but as much as I love them, I love the process of creation, and I want to go on and create things for myself, and create new things.

I looked at comics like a buffet table, where you take a little bit of something and leave the other stuff behind.

I like artists to have some freedom.

Bruce Wayne needs a sense of humor to do his job. Batman, for a very long time, was going to a very dark place.

Batman's got this whole cloaked 'man of mystery' thing around him and represents a wish fulfillment. He's more driven than Superman yet is also very human.

Batman doesn't use a gun. When Bruce Wayne thinks he had to resort to a street thug's level to defend himself and the girl he was rescuing, he decides he can't be Batman anymore.

As a writer, every time I create a character, I try to go for something to captivate the audience in some way. It's also an extension of how the audience would like to see themselves.

Initially, kids are attracted to Superman as a hero because he can take care of problems and still appear as friendly as your dad.

I've always liked the Krampus character, and I've always been fascinated with him, especially the tradition that he was such a part of the holiday season in Europe, in Germany, Austria, northern Italy, various other places.

I have a great fondness for any character I work on. Whether it's somebody like Batman or Harley Quinn or whatever character I'm writing, I just really enjoy the heck out of it, and I try to do the best job I can with it.

I think nobody knows more about comic book characters than Seth Green. I thought I knew a lot, and he leaves me in the dust.

Kids love the Hulk, but they're not really sure: 'Is he a monster or is he a hero?'

Without Wonder Woman, there would be no Black Canary; without a Superman, there would be no Flash. They all come from that.

Boys, boys, boys. Boys buy the little spinny tops, they but the action figures, girls buy princesses, we're not selling princesses.

We’ve all selected the wrong partners, all gotten hurt, and hopefully all moved on wiser for the experience. But there are those who, even in the face of constant disappointment, continue to believe that the intensity of their desire will be rewarded by an eventual jackpot of affection. And if that’s the slot machine you’re playing, friend, you’d better leave the casino ‘cause that one don’t pay out