Top 100 Whedon's Quotes
#1. I think often times on Joss Whedon's shows he can make you hate a character for a period and then love the character. He does it effortlessly.
J. August Richards
#2. At last we've seen the first installment of Joss Whedon's new web series, 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog,' and it's sweeter than we'd ever imagined.
Annalee Newitz
#3. Lies. The great human weapon. Pathetic.
I'd say "pathetic" would be falling for them. Especially Kitty's.
Joss Whedon
#4. Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. It's harsh and cruel. But that's why there's us. Champions. It doesn't matter where we come from, what we've done or suffered, or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world was what it should be, to show it what it can be.
Joss Whedon
#5. I've been in this business for a long while, but it's not like I've been waiting tables. Since I started writing, I've only worked on things that I love. I've had a lot of heartbreak, but you don't become an artist and not expect that.
Joss Whedon
#6. Joss Whedon is a hero of mine, and what he's done for women in film and television, particularly when it comes to writing female roles that would typically go to a man, is awesome.
Bryce Dallas Howard
#7. The secret to multitasking is that it isn't actually multitasking. It's just extreme focus and organization.
Joss Whedon
#8. What Sarah brings to the part is her intelligence, at the same time, she's got that hormonal, idiosyncratic goofiness that makes Buffy not just the Terminator.
Joss Whedon
#9. In TV, there's so much compromise, it does start to grate a bit. But if you're a writer or an actor, it really is the place to be.
Joss Whedon
#10. In other news, it's been far too long since I gloated massively about the fact that I know what's going to happen on Buffy and you all don't.
Joss Whedon
#11. One of the things that's fun about TV is it grows, and you set goals and aim towards stuff, and one of the writers has an idea, and you say, 'Ooh, that's so much cooler. Let's do that instead.' It's so much more fluid and organic that way, and that's the most fun part about it.
Jed Whedon
#12. I just love language. I mean, I love it. I love stage directions. Any opportunity to write. I hadn't written in so long, I get very crazy and miserable. I - it's like not seeing my kids: I can't do it for very long.
Joss Whedon
#13. There's a lot of anger in the Twitter-verse, as I've discovered. But there's a lot of love.
Joss Whedon
#14. The news isn't there to tell you what happened. It's there to tell you what it wants you to hear or what it thinks you want to hear.
Joss Whedon
#15. I'm sorry. But it's like you said, Emma ... I don't have any claws.
Joss Whedon
#16. That title, is one of the things I fought for. A lot of people said 'But it's stupid, and it's the title of a comedy movie, and people won't take it seriously,' and I'm sure there are some people who still don't. But for the most part, people do see that we really have a quality show.
Joss Whedon
#17. Every time you work on a project, it's a little vacation from the project you're working on the other 23 hours. That's the thing - it replenishes you to do something else.
Joss Whedon
#18. Men not only don't get what's important about what women are capable of, but in fact they fear it, and envy it, and want to throw stones at it, because it's the thing they can't have.
Joss Whedon
#19. There's a time and place for everything, and I believe it's called 'fan fiction'.
Joss Whedon
#20. Live with a man 40 years. Share his house, his meals. Speak on every subject. Then tie him up, and hold him over the volcano's edge. And on that day, you will finally meet the man.
Joss Whedon
#22. The comic world has its own limitations, as everything does. I adore it, I respect it, but it's not going to take over all of me.
Joss Whedon
#23. TV does a thing that film can never do. It takes you to a place that no novel written after the late 19th century can. You can just go through people's lives; it's like a marriage.
Joss Whedon
#24. I go to movies expecting to have a whole experience. If I want a movie that doesn't end, I'll go to a French movie. That's a betrayal of trust to me. A movie has to be complete within itself; it can't just build off the first one or play variations.
Joss Whedon
#25. It's very important that we start creating new content again. We can only build on nostalgia so much before we have nothing left to build on.
Joss Whedon
#26. He's like Super Librarian, y'know? Everyone forgets, Willow, that knowledge is the ultimate weapon.
Joss Whedon
#27. If you're going to make a science fiction movie, then have a hover craft chase, for God's sake.
Joss Whedon
#28. I set out in television with one simple goal: to purchase a Russian bride. Didn't work out. Immigration stuff - it's complicated.
Joss Whedon
#29. You either have to write or you shouldn't be writing. That's all.
Joss Whedon
#30. I've seen plenty of films where the projector broke. The problems that we have in the digital age are exactly the same as we had. Instead of, 'There's a hair in the gate,' it's, 'The computer ate the footage.' There will always be things like that going on. Nothing is perfect.
Joss Whedon
#31. I don't write just to be clever. But sometimes I do. And if you don't have an understanding of the language, then the way in which it's bent doesn't actually register. It's the old you-gotta-paint-like-them-before-you-can-paint-like-you thing.
Joss Whedon
#32. I always believe in just have as much fun as you can so that when you're in the part that you hate, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, that you're close to finished.
Joss Whedon
#33. You go to movies to see people you love suffer - that's why you go to the movies. You don't go to see a movie about a guy who already knows he has a wonderful life.
Joss Whedon
#34. I loved the idea of a girl going into a dark alley, and a monster comes, and then she just aces him. It's like, you want to see the tiny person suddenly take control. God, my whole career is basically about that!
Joss Whedon
#35. My people - before I was changed - they exchanged this as a sign of devotion. It's a Claddagh ring. The hands represent friendship; the crown represents loyalty ... and the heart ... Well, you know ... Wear it with the heart pointing towards you. It means you belong to somebody. Like this.
Joss Whedon
#36. Now there's us, staking out our piece of cinematic turf (might be small but
it's ours). And the music has to fit the vision as specifically as it did for [Star Wars and The Matrix.] OUR music comes from THEIR music, this scrappled bunch. It is spare, intimate, mournful and indefatigable.
Joss Whedon
#37. Malcolm: So me and mine gotta lay down and die ... So you can live in your better world?
Operative: I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there ... any more than there is for you. I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it. But it must be done.
Joss Whedon
#38. I had older brothers, and I don't think there's anything worse than an older brother. They pretty much told me the end of everything they got to see before I did.
Joss Whedon
#39. I've never met a well-adjusted person. It's weird.
Joss Whedon
#40. Well, I guess I kinda worked it out. If there's no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters ... , then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. Now. Today.
Joss Whedon
#41. I'm not big on regret. It's not on my schedule.
Joss Whedon
#42. Everything we do really is just a little marker on the long road to death. And sometimes that's overwhelmingly depressing to me, and sometimes it makes me feel kinship and forgiveness. We've all got the same ending to the story. The way we make that story more elaborate, I got to respect.
Joss Whedon
#43. You think we're dancing?" "That's all we've ever done.
Joss Whedon
#44. That's the great thing about 'The West Wing:' you really felt like you were in the thick of it.
Joss Whedon
#45. Cordelia: I personally don't think it's possible to come up with a crazier plan.
Oz: We attack the Mayor with hummus.
Cordelia: I stand corrected.
Oz: Just keeping things in perspective.
Mutant Enemy Joss Whedon
#46. The misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who's confronted with it.
Joss Whedon
#47. It's about women. It's about power and it's about women and you just hate those two words in the same sentence, don't you?
Joss Whedon
#48. If you try to multitask in the classic sense of doing two things at once, what you end up doing is quasi-tasking. It's like being with children. You have to give it your full attention for however much time you have, and then you have to give something else your full attention.
Joss Whedon
#49. If somebody is in a story, they need to be there for a reason, and not just to set up somebody else's story.
Joss Whedon
#50. I object!
What?
Bugger, was that acting?
Is not courtroom, Katya.
Shut up! I'm not good at having two conversations at once. And I hate Scott's plan!
You mean you "object" to it.
Joss Whedon
#51. If I wrote what I really think, I would be so sad all the time. We create to fill a gap - not just to avoid the idea of dying, it's to fill some particular gap in ourselves.
Joss Whedon
#52. I wish more people would take the extraordinary talent they have and just let their id go because that's what we discovered. We discovered that the sillier we got, the more people believed that we were speaking from our hearts.
Joss Whedon
#53. I have abused language. I love it, and I abuse it ... I don't write just to be clever. But sometimes I do. And if you don't have an understanding of the language, then the way in which it's bent doesn't actually register.
Joss Whedon
#54. Everything I do in its essence is about helplessness. That's the story I want to tell all the time. It's the story I wanted to live - somebody who appears to be, or is, weak becoming stronger.
Joss Whedon
#55. I used to write chronologically when I started, from beginning to end. Eventually I went, 'That's absurd; my heart is in this one scene, therefore I must follow it.'
Joss Whedon
#56. I love to write. I love it. I mean there's nothin in the world I like better, and that includes sex, probably because I'm so very bad at it.
Joss Whedon
#57. I am not a fan of referencing your own work when it's in a different universe than what you're doing. That, to me, is a wink at the audience, and winking isn't actually cool when you're not, like, 10.
Joss Whedon
#58. I'm a science fiction geek from birth - that's just who I am.
Joss Whedon
#59. What I love most about icons is finding out what's behind them, exploring the price of their power.
Joss Whedon
#60. You can't embarrass Joss Whedon, he's got no pride! He fully admits it. 'Oh, it's me. I'm little and goofy.' You can't wound his pride. He's too self-deprecating.
Nathan Fillion
#61. I was never a games night guy, but at some point, social interaction starts to freak me out. So when there's a point, it's easier for me to see the people I love and hang out and try to have fun.
Joss Whedon
#62. There's no fuzzy middle ground. You either believe that women are people or you don't. It's that simple.
Joss Whedon
#63. All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn't your pet
it's your kid. It grows up and talks back to you.
Joss Whedon
#64. I would love to give you a more in-depth coherent explanation of my view of the soul, and if I had one I would. The soul and my concept of it are as ephemeral as anybody's, and possibly more so.
Joss Whedon
#65. Every writer loves the idea of being able to go in and fix a problem and then leave without obligation. It's fun!
Joss Whedon
#66. Life's a show and we all play a part
And when the music starts
We open up our hearts
Joss Whedon
#67. To forgive is an act of compassion ... It's not done because people deserve it. It's done because they need it.
Joss Whedon
#68. Everything I write tends to turn into a superhero team, even if I didn't mean for it to. I always start off wanting to be solitary, because a) it's simpler, and b) that isolation is something that I relate to as a storyteller. And then no matter what, I always end up with a team.
Joss Whedon
#69. Sometimes people are layered like that. There's something totally different underneath than what's on the surface. But sometimes, there's a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one. Like with pie.
Joss Whedon
#70. All right, Emma. You brought me in. You made your move. Just like I knew you would. A nice move. Now it's my turn.
Joss Whedon
#71. Are you all right?"
"Oh my god! I phased!"
"Are you all right?"
"Are you?"
"It was strange."
"I can't believe I phased just then! That's never ... it was totally your fault."
"I like to think so, yes."
"Tee hee.
Joss Whedon
#72. What's plan b?'
'We all die now.'
'What's plan c?
Joss Whedon
#73. Sarah Michelle Gellar's made some really good choices. She's had some bad breaks. She goes with the independent, interesting young filmmakers and then they get slammed, like 'Southland Tales.' I'm proud of what she's trying to do. It's hard.
Joss Whedon
#74. Mal: We're still flying.
Simon: That's not much.
Mal: It's enough
- from Firefly
Joss Whedon
#75. I think there's a possibility that comic book movies are getting a tiny bit better on the one hand because they're no longer made by executives, who are, you know, ninety-year-old bald tailors with cigars, going, 'The kids love this!'
Joss Whedon
#76. I'm never interested in movies where you don't care about the people you're watching, and that's my biggest quibble about horror, that kids have gotten stupider and stupider.
Joss Whedon
#77. I think to an extent every human being needs to be redeemed somewhat or at least needs to look at themselves and say, 'I've made mistakes, I'm off course, I need to change.' Which is probably the hardest thing for a human being to do, and maybe that's why it interests me so.
Joss Whedon
#78. That girl will rain destruction down on you and your ship. She is an albatross, Captain.
Way I remember it, albatross was a ship's good luck, 'til some idiot killed it. (to Inara) Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint.
Joss Whedon
#79. Everyone has their first date and the object is to hide your flaws. And then you're in a relationship, and it's all about hiding your disappointment. And then, once you're married, it's about hiding your sins.
Joss Whedon
#80. Writing is the greatest thing that can happen to a human being. It's the best.
Joss Whedon
#81. I like Victorian children's novels extremely a lot. If I would say I collect anything, that's what I'll hunt for now and again at old book stores.
Joss Whedon
#82. My life has included a study of Shakespeare and to me it's very natural, but I know that it's not always accessible to other people.
Joss Whedon
#83. Shakespeare's language does not require a British accent. It requires a facility with language, and that's all.
Joss Whedon
#84. I don't actually have anything against anybody, unless their belief precludes everybody else's ... I am an atheist and an absurdist and I have been for many years. I've actually taken a huge amount of flack for that.
Joss Whedon
#85. The goal is always about the next story. It's always about the thing I haven't done before. It's about learning, or it's about becoming better, and it's about whatever story grabs hold of me.
Joss Whedon
#86. I tend to tell stories that have a lot of momentum; it's not like 'and then months later ... ' I like things where the momentum of one action rolls into the next one so everything is the sum of that.
Joss Whedon
#87. I've Got Him! You've got to keep at her. Forget all your training
she's fought you a thousand times."
"Don't presume to run my team, you little tart-"
(Colossus throws Emma at Danger)
"Yes. I see how it works. Normally, I wouldn't have done that.
Joss Whedon
#88. Scramblers deactivated, then?
Well here's some good news.
You feel no pain.
You will go straight to a hospital. Remember nothing of this place.
And every time you hear the words "parsley", "intractable" or "longitude", you will vomit uncontrollably for forty-eight hours.
Joss Whedon
#89. What I do like is hiking. And that's what filmmaking is. It's a hike. It's challenging and exhausting, and you don't know what the terrain is going to be or necessarily even which direction you're going in ... but it sure is beautiful.
Joss Whedon
#90. If I find out I have to write today and nothing else, that's a perfect day. I know a lot of people who are great at it and make it look easy who are tortured and miserable people. Writing for me is perfect peace.
Joss Whedon
#91. Angelus: Now that's everything, huh? No weapons ... No friends ... No hope. Take all that away ... and what's left? Buffy: Me.
Joss Whedon
#92. TV's like whitewater rafting: Without rocks, there wouldn't be rapids, and it wouldn't be as much fun.
Joss Whedon
#93. There's a reason Tony Stark makes fun of 'Thor,' and mentions 'Shakespeare' in the park in 'The Avengers.' It's great to play high drama and comedy alongside a modern story.
Joss Whedon
#94. I walk. I talk. I shop. I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out, and I don't sleep on a bed of bones.
Joss Whedon
#95. Every day's a negotiation and sometimes it's done with guns.
Joss Whedon
#96. I find that when you read a script, or rewrite something, or look at something that's been gone over, you can tell, like rings on a tree, by how bad it is, how long it's been in development.
Joss Whedon
#97. Because to me, there is no logic of any kind behind misogyny. Therefore, it's funny, because it's so completely random to me. It's senseless.
Joss Whedon
#98. People used to laugh that academics would study Disney movies. There's nothing more important for academics to study, because they shape the minds of our children possibly more than any single thing.
Joss Whedon
#99. I think it's not inaccurate to say that I had a perfectly happy childhood during which I was very unhappy.
Joss Whedon
#100. If something isn't working, if you have a story that you've built and it's blocked and you can't figure it out, take your favorite scene, or your very best idea or set-piece, and cut it. It's brutal, but sometimes inevitable.
Joss Whedon
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