Top 100 Straczynski Quotes
#1. I'm a huge science fiction fan, and I'm a huge fan of J. Michael Straczynski.
Jamie Clayton
#2. No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. For one person, in the dark where no one will ever know or see.
J. Michael Straczynski
#3. In every other science fiction series, humans are at the top of the food chain. In the 'Babylon 5' universe, they're in the bottom third.
J. Michael Straczynski
#4. Science fiction shows are traditionally about the gimmick or the gadget and tend to be emotionally cool to the touch.
J. Michael Straczynski
#5. 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
#6. You don't buy into huge car chases or sensates or interstellar warfare, but you can buy into a loving relationship or a father-son relationship, and you can buy into the small humor. If you want to make your fiction universal, go small. That's the best way to do it.
J. Michael Straczynski
#8. 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
#9. 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
#10. 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
#11. The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible in-between. But there is still time to seize that one last fragile moment.
J. Michael Straczynski
#12. 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
#13. I keep waiting for a paradigm shift to happen that will let network and studio execs see that sci-fi is the same as any other genre in terms of how you approach it - logically, character-based, with challenging ideas and forward thinking - but I worry that it might never happen in my lifetime.
J. Michael Straczynski
#14. Not all murder is evil ...
In the right time, the right place, for the right reason
it can be a blessing more profound than any you can imagine
J. Michael Straczynski
#15. I sometimes find reality far more fantastical and unlikely than what I could just make up.
J. Michael Straczynski
#16. It's been amazing to watch, because for 'Thor', which was always a mid-selling book, to be in the top ten for every single issue since the reboot is just a great compliment.
J. Michael Straczynski
#17. My philosophy: find what it is you want to say, walk in the room, say it, and get the hell out.
J. Michael Straczynski
#18. 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
#19. If your going to have delusions, you might as well go for the really satisfying ones.
J. Michael Straczynski
#20. All you can do is focus on telling the best story you can with compelling characters. If you do it right, it will endure. If you do it wrong, it won't.
J. Michael Straczynski
#21. You should do what you enjoy doing, what brings you passion. 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
#22. Life was meant to be lived full measure, flat out, pedal to the metal. Don't live the rest of your life like a Porsche that never leaves the garage because somebody's afraid to scratch it.
J. Michael Straczynski
#23. I like writing. It's partly control freak, and partly I really like what I do for a living. I have the luckiest job in the world. I can get up every day and do what I love for a living.
J. Michael Straczynski
#24. 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
#25. The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of the future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.
J. Michael Straczynski
#26. 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
#27. I'm a big believer in the idea that while we are the sum of our tears, we are also the product of our choices in how we deal with those tears.
J. Michael Straczynski
#28. My house looks like it was decorated by a 14-year old with a platinum American Express card.
J. Michael Straczynski
#29. 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
#30. 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
#31. 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
#32. There's a lot of comics writers out there whose work I appreciate and who are nice guys. I really want to work with guys I really respect and enjoy.
J. Michael Straczynski
#33. I think that we are already making steps toward mapping out the brain so we can identify the chemical patterns that create and store memory.
J. Michael Straczynski
#34. Every time I got 'Amazing Spider-Man' or 'Fantastic Four' or another book firmly on the rails, we got pulled into some big event book or crossover and it cost momentum and messed badly with the pacing and structure of the book.
J. Michael Straczynski
#35. 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
#36. To understand this whole area, you have to stop thinking like a viewer and start thinking like a network programming exec.
J. Michael Straczynski
#37. The quality of our thoughts is bordered on all sides by our facility with language.
J. Michael Straczynski
#38. No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever.
J. Michael Straczynski
#39. 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
#40. We are dreamers, shapers, singers, and makers.We study the mysteries of laser and circuit, crystal and scanner, holographic demons and invocations of equations. These are the tools we employ and we know many things.
J. Michael Straczynski
#41. 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
#42. Wouldn't it be much worse if life really were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us happen because we really deserve them?
J. Michael Straczynski
#44. I've always been kind of a mutt creatively. I started off in journalism, and I've actually done more police and procedural shows than I've ever done science fiction shows. I was on 'Murder She Wrote,' I was on 'Walker, Texas Ranger,' I was on 'Jake and the Fat Man.'
J. Michael Straczynski
#45. 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
#47. 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
#48. If I feel that I'm not able to do my best work - whether that's my own fault or as a result of an editorial situation - then I need to stop doing it. I would rather not do something than do it badly or ineffectively. It's the only way I can live with myself and do right by the fans in the long haul.
J. Michael Straczynski
#49. To me, science fiction is about the sense of mystery, the sense of awe. Not 'shock and awe', just 'awe.'
J. Michael Straczynski
#50. Sometimes the pain they wish to spare is their own because if you can be convinced to set aside your own dreams, they can remain comfortable with their decision to do the same.
J. Michael Straczynski
#51. The whole point of Superman, as originally created, was to be the ally of those who had no other allies. It put that magnitude of power, the most powerful guy in the world, in the service of those who had no hope, no chance.
J. Michael Straczynski
#52. The only thing that I discovered very early on is that, even though we might change schools and cities and towns and states, the books in the library were the same. They had the same covers. They had the same characters. I could go and visit those people in the library as if I knew them.
J. Michael Straczynski
#54. 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
#55. I don't start writing a script until I can see it all in my head, then it's a matter of getting it down in white heat.
J. Michael Straczynski
#56. 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
#57. I can easily come up with ten really iconic stories/trade paperbacks for Superman, Batman, others ... name me ten equally big, iconic Wonder Woman stories. Much harder. That ain't the character's fault, that isn't sexism, that's just not servicing the character.
J. Michael Straczynski
#58. 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
#59. 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
#62. 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
#63. 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
#64. I think for any writer, creating and controlling your own property is the ultimate dream.
J. Michael Straczynski
#67. 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
#69. 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
#70. There are those who seem to feel they have no choice about being jerks in the present because they had a crappy childhood. Well, that's the definition of childhood; nobody gets out alive. You either get stronger from what you experience, or you turn it into a crutch, an excuse, a dodge.
J. Michael Straczynski
#72. I am big believer in the notion that as a species we are better together than we are apart, that the common core of our shared humanity is stronger than that which seeks to marginalize us and factualize us and turn us against each other.
J. Michael Straczynski
#76. Superhero stories are kind of in my DNA from childhood on, so I think I'm genetically drawn to playing in the genre when the opportunity presents itself.
J. Michael Straczynski
#78. 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
#79. 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
#80. 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
#81. 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
#82. Stage-persona notwithstanding, I'm extremely shy and quiet. Almost painfully shy. People misinterpret that as being above it all or not interested.
J. Michael Straczynski
#83. Coming from TV and film, rule number one is that you always service the main character first and foremost. If that's not working, you've got nothing.
J. Michael Straczynski
#84. 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
#85. I don't need to write comics for a living. I have movies and TV for that. I write comics for one reason and one reason only: I love comics. I love the form, the structure, the storytelling process, I love everything about it.
J. Michael Straczynski
#86. I always knew that I was going to be a writer. There was no question in my mind about that.
J. Michael Straczynski
#87. 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
#88. I used to wonder which would be harder: having no one to believe in you or someone who believes in you so much that their love could burn you to the ground. Someone who knows you can give more than you think you can. Not just love. Ferocity.
J. Michael Straczynski
#90. Angels can't enter hell unless a demon holds open the door, and demons can't enter heaven without an angel's say-so.
J. Michael Straczynski
#91. Even as I think these words for the first time, the me who is my future self is remembering me thinking these words for the first time.
J. Michael Straczynski
#93. The American Way is an amalgam of our compassion, our strengths, our failings and our attempts to build a better world, a more perfect union.
J. Michael Straczynski
#94. I was very clear that I wanted to keep 'Thor' out of the rest of the Marvel universe for no less than the first six issues. And the success of the book, I think, speaks well to that decision.
J. Michael Straczynski
#95. It is imperative for many branches of fundamentalist christianity to constantly feel conspired against ... so they cite humanist manifestos and theosophical societies and concoct these vast and dark organizations that exist nowhere but in the minds of those who conceive these theories.
J. Michael Straczynski
#97. People in a cluster are bound to each other automatically, and can see each other automatically.
J. Michael Straczynski
#99. The whole point of having great characters is the opportunity to explore them more deeply with time, re-interpreting them for each new age.
J. Michael Straczynski
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