Joss Whedon Quotes

Powerful Joss Whedon for Daily Growth

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

Love, Give, More, Coherent

My first gig ever was writing looplines for a movie that had already been made. You know, writing lines over somebody's back to explain something, to help make a connection, to add a joke, or to just add babble because the people are in frame and should be saying something.

- Joss Whedon

Movie, Explain, Been, Gig

I always enjoy conversation more if there is some substance to it - which is a just incredibly hilarious thing for me to say because for many, many years I was the guy whose only contribution to any conversation was, 'There was a funny 'Simpson's' joke about that.'

- Joss Whedon

Enjoy, Some, About, Hilarious

I was not popular in school, and I was definitely not a ladies' man. And I had a very painful adolescence, because it was all very strange to me. It wasn't like I got beat up, but the humiliation and isolation, and the existential 'God, I exist, and nobody cares' of being a teenager were extremely pronounced for me.

- Joss Whedon

Got, Very, Had, Beat

I don't know a lot of show runners. I mean I met a lot of them in picket lines. I'm not part of a, like, secret society or pickup basketball game. As far as I'm concerned, pick-up basketball games are secret societies. They confuse me. I've never been a networker or I've never been very social.

- Joss Whedon

Game, Been, Very, Picket

What 'Scream' was great at was presenting ironic detachment and then making you actually care about the people that were having it, and juxtaposing it with their situation, all in the service of making a great horror movie. It was fresh.

- Joss Whedon

Making, Detachment, Having, Horror Movie

My deal with Marvel is I have a consulting deal with them as well as a contract to make 'Avengers.' That means I'll read all the scripts, I'll look at cuts.

- Joss Whedon

Deal, Means, Read, Cuts

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

Development, Over, Been, Rings

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

Doing, Audience, Winking, Wink

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

Superhero, Wanting, I Write, Simpler

An audience who watches my shows knows who I am, knows that right when they think I'm going to make a joke, I'm going to blow something up, or during the worst peril, I'm going to have someone give someone a kiss - it's just going to happen.

- Joss Whedon

Kiss, Shows, Peril, Joke

'The Dark Knight,' for me, has the same problem that every other 'Batman' movie has. It's not about Batman. I think Heath Ledger is just phenomenal and the character of the Joker is beautifully written. He has a particular philosophy that he carries throughout the movie. He has one of the best bad guy schemes.

- Joss Whedon

Movie, Other, I Think, Knight

The thing about a hero, is even when it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, he's going to keep trying to do right and make up for what's gone before, just because that's who he is.

- Joss Whedon

Hero, Before, About, End Of The Tunnel

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

Always, Part, Finished, End Of The Tunnel

I do have screenplays I've written that never saw the light of day, but I don't usually go back to them. When I've told a story, I want to tell another story.

- Joss Whedon

Want, Tell, Another, Screenplays

Shakespeare's language does not require a British accent. It requires a facility with language, and that's all.

- Joss Whedon

Language, Does, Shakespeare, Accent

I hate it when people talk about Buffy as being campy... I hate camp, I don't enjoy dumb TV. I believe Aaron Spelling has single-handedly lowered SAT scores.

- Joss Whedon

Spelling, TV, Scores, None

When I was a kid, maybe 11, I remember saying, 'When I grow up I wanna have enough money to buy a really cool car, because I won't.'

- Joss Whedon

Grow, I Remember, Maybe, Enough Money

I'm a very hard-line, angry atheist. Yet I am fascinated by the concept of devotion.

- Joss Whedon

I Am, Concept, Very, Hard-Line

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

Trust, Play, Movie, Variations

I don't tend to write straight dramas where real life just impinges. But because I don't, when I do, it is very interesting to slap people in the face with just an absolute of life.

- Joss Whedon

Interesting, Real, Very, Dramas

I have a pathological fear of confrontation. I'm working on that.

- Joss Whedon

Fear, Working, Confrontation, Pathological

Kristen Stewart is kind of captivating; she can just stare at stuff and it works because I still want to watch it.

- Joss Whedon

Kind, Still, Works, Captivating

Everybody who labels themselves a 'nerd' isn't some giant person locked in a cubbyhole who's never seen the opposite sex. Especially with the way the Internet is now, I think that definition is getting a little more diffuse.

- Joss Whedon

Some, Everybody, I Think, Locked

Casting is storytelling.

- Joss Whedon

Storytelling, Casting

I'm a very gentle man, not unlike Gandhi.

- Joss Whedon

Gentle, Very, Unlike, Gandhi

Every kid who hated grownups becomes a grownup. Well, except the ones who died.

- Joss Whedon

Kid, Well, Grownup, Grownups

The master plan does not have a master plan. Television ultimately finds itself, and after it finds itself, it finds itself changing.

- Joss Whedon

Itself, Finds, Does, Master Plan

That's the great thing about 'The West Wing:' you really felt like you were in the thick of it.

- Joss Whedon

Like, About, Felt, West Wing

The problem for me is that 'Watchmen,' one of the great comics of all time, is a look at superheroes that has gone beyond the concept of or necessity for superheroes.

- Joss Whedon

Great, Concept, Comics, Watchmen

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