Top 100 Brian K. Vaughan Quotes
#1. There's an old saying, Zill. Freedom can't be given, only earned.
Brian K. Vaughan
#2. I wanted to write a story about a future where everyone has a secret identity, in part because the Internet no longer exists.
Brian K. Vaughan
#3. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#4. I'm not buried in that plot, Karoline. Some woman claiming to be me from the future is."
"Why do they call it a plot, anyway?"
"Because this is how every story ends.
Brian K. Vaughan
#5. The only way the dead live on is through the people they leave behind.
Brian K. Vaughan
#6. Together, my parents had learned to be much more than "the sum of their parts", whatever that means.
Separately, they were kind of just a mess.
Brian K. Vaughan
#7. Not many people read my stuff, but I really like the ones that do.
Brian K. Vaughan
#8. If a good editor will let me tell my story with the right artist, I'm happy.
Brian K. Vaughan
#9. I remember when I was a kid and I would go to the comic-book store, I would have no idea what was going on in that month's issues. Sometimes I wouldn't even know what comics were coming out until I walked into the store.
Brian K. Vaughan
#10. I've always seen 'Y' as an unconventional romance between a boy and his protector. It was always about the last boy on Earth becoming the last man on Earth, and the women who made that possible.
Brian K. Vaughan
#11. Admit it, you're probably a very different person at work than you are at home.
Everyone needs to be someone else sometimes.
Brian K. Vaughan
#12. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#13. My name is Hazel. I started out as an idea, but I ended up something more. Not much more, to be honest. It's not like I grow up to become some great war hero or any sort of all important savior... but thanks to these two, at least I get to grow old.
Not everybody does.
Brian K. Vaughan
#14. No, only villains try to change the whole world. The rest of us take it one person at a time.
Brian K. Vaughan
#15. Bro, all you've got is a book. How do you plan to fight our parents? With literacy?
Brian K. Vaughan
#16. Well, I've always wanted to call my son Barr."
"Like a tavern? Like a soap?"
"My father's name is Barr."
"Oh. And I love it!
Brian K. Vaughan
#18. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#19. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#20. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#22. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#23. Death is just a chapter break in a never-ending tale, Nico.
Brian K. Vaughan
#24. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#25. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#26. Even though I was trained in play writing and screenwriting, when I sat down to write a comic book for the first time, Alan Moore was first and foremost in my mind.
Brian K. Vaughan
#28. Over the years, we met every kind of person imaginable. But no one makes worse first impressions than writers.
Brian K. Vaughan
#29. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#30. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#32. I'm not going to stand here and be eaten by some bitch's dinosaur. I am finally doing something with my life.
Brian K. Vaughan
#33. You remind me of my late sister, little one. As I once told her, the headstrong may win many battles ... but only the strong of heart will survive the war.
Brian K. Vaughan
#34. Then why did you risk everything to be with him?
Because your son is so goddamn beautiful.
Ha. I assure you, looks aren't forever.
Oh, I know.
I wasn't talking about his looks.
Brian K. Vaughan
#35. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#38. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#39. Just go out there and get your heart broken in, so it'll be ready when you really need it.
Brian K. Vaughan
#41. You know, for a pacifist, you sure beg to get stabbed a lot
Brian K. Vaughan
#42. We're all aliens to someone. Even among our own people, most of us still feel like complete foreigners from time to time.
Brian K. Vaughan
#44. That was the appealing thing about comics: There literally is no budget in comics. You're only limited by your imagination.
Brian K. Vaughan
#45. There's always money in conflict."
"Says the diehard peacenik?"
"Oh, I abhor real violence, but fake violence is fucking brilliant.
Brian K. Vaughan
#46. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#47. Victor: You guys have some kind of rallying cry? You know, "Avengers assemble?" "It's clobberin' time?" "Hulk smash?"
Nico: "Try not to die.
Brian K. Vaughan
#48. Come back with a healthy monkey, or don't come back at all.
Brian K. Vaughan
#49. I like animal sidekicks. They seem to be a pretty cool trope of post-apocalyptic fiction - just because if you're going to have this lone protagonist, they're going to need someone to talk to. Dogs are overused, and cats are dumb. So that leaves monkeys.
Brian K. Vaughan
#50. I'm not afraid of the world. I'm afraid of a world without you.
Brian K. Vaughan
#52. All writing is the same: It's just making up lies until it starts to sound like the truth. That's what I do.
Brian K. Vaughan
#55. In the Open Circuit, characters are supposed to have 'arcs,' where they grow and evolve over the course of the story.
But Mom always thought that was nonsense.
Brian K. Vaughan
#56. Once you get past the scales and the blindfold, Justice is a woman with a sword.
Brian K. Vaughan
#57. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#58. 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!
Brian K. Vaughan
#59. You're the one saying how vital offing these kids and grabbing their brat is to the war effort, right? Well, I'm telling you I need way more cash to do it right, so
Lying.
How have you not murdered that creature by now?
Oh, I've tried.
Brian K. Vaughan
#60. Childbirth has always been a dangerous undertaking, but at least I've managed to eliminate the most painful part of the process.
What's that? Sex?
Love.
Brian K. Vaughan
#61. I've always thought of fantasy as a genre of best-case scenarios, and horror as a genre of worst-case scenarios.
Brian K. Vaughan
#62. Here's the thing, everybody loves babies ... but only in very, VERY small doses.
Brian K. Vaughan
#63. I mean, do you know what you get when you call a suicide hotline in New York city? A busy signal. Literally.
Brian K. Vaughan
#64. If there's an opposite of a honeymoon, it's the week after a couple's first child is born.
Brian K. Vaughan
#65. Every issue, the characters and I duke it out. They usually win.
Brian K. Vaughan
#66. All you have to do is make a fist. The bullet does the hitting for you.
Brian K. Vaughan
#67. In the beginning, love is mostly about lying to each other. It's like that in the end, too.
Brian K. Vaughan
#68. Yeah, life is complicated. But it's also very fucking short.
If you find someone who can forgive all your bullshit ... the least you can do is try to forgive them.
Brian K. Vaughan
#69. There's no graduating from this kind of education, couples just keep growing and changing until they either break up or die.
Brian K. Vaughan
#70. From my very first day, I was pursued by men.
All of them tried to hurt me, but only one managed to break my heart.
Brian K. Vaughan
#71. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#72. I suppose the only time we ever really get to be happy in life - like one hundred percent blissful - is when we're little kids."
"Because there's less to worry about?"
"Because we're too stupid to know how worried we should be.
Brian K. Vaughan
#74. I don't think I have discipline when it comes to anything.
Brian K. Vaughan
#75. Forgive me if I don't take relationship advice from a dead teenager missing her vagina.
Brian K. Vaughan
#76. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#77. 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
Brian K. Vaughan
#79. Capitalism may be the unequal distribution of wealth, socialism is the equal distribution of poverty.
Brian K. Vaughan
#80. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#81. My parents told me to be careful of you. That's how I knew you were the onyly one of us we could trust with our lives.
Brian K. Vaughan
#82. Have you ever been shot by one? Because I have and it hurt like the day my dog died ...
Brian K. Vaughan
#84. I, for example, am a pompous asshole, but my comics are genius!
Brian K. Vaughan
#85. When a man carries an instrument of violence, he'll always find the justification to use it. If we really want to escape this war, we have to stop bringing it with us.
Brian K. Vaughan
#86. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#87. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#88. Fantasy/science-fiction stories have been around almost as long as each genre, but every hybrid now lives in the shadow of 'Star Wars.'
Brian K. Vaughan
#89. So what? He's good to you and Hazel now, isn't he? Who cares if he's got history with some other broad?
Brian K. Vaughan
#90. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#91. Your moon is always full, android. You Earthlings have such limited perspective.
Brian K. Vaughan
#92. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#95. Relax, Klara, you can finish your one-woman book club as soon as somebody gets home.
Brian K. Vaughan
#96. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#98. 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.
Brian K. Vaughan
#99. Readers love fantasy, but we need horror. Smart horror. Truthful horror. Horror that helps us make sense of a cruelly senseless world.
Brian K. Vaughan
#100. It's TV shows like BUFFY and ANGEL that usually have an incredible cliffhanger every commercial break that amaze me.
Brian K. Vaughan
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
