Marjorie Liu Quotes

I'd like to go back in time and haunt Robert Louis Stevenson during his years in the South Pacific.

- Marjorie Liu

Freedom to tell any story I want, with all the imaginary tools of my trade, is why I love writing novels. I love taking an idea, fleshing it out into a new world - and going on adventures with characters who day-dream themselves into existence and take on lives of their own.

- Marjorie Liu

Most of the female 'superhero' role models of my childhood came from novels, and they rarely had powers. Take Dorothy, for example, from 'The Wizard of Oz;' or Laura Ingalls and her sisters in the 'Little House on the Prairie' novels.

- Marjorie Liu

As a writer, I find that a good way of evolving a character is through an examination of his or her defining relationships - and what's more defining than a relationship with someone you love?

- Marjorie Liu

As a writer - and a romance novelist, no less - I've always found it a bit odd when characters in comic books remain in relationship limbo for years at a time.

- Marjorie Liu

At his heart, Gambit is a good man who believes in taking care of his friends, and his friends are what's most important to him. People are his home. He will do anything for those who matter to him.

- Marjorie Liu

Marriage isn't the end-point of a relationship. It's just a stepping stone, one aspect of a long-term evolution between two people who have, for whatever reason, decided to take a leap of faith and say, 'Well, hey, this is a person who I want to try with for the rest of my life.' Which is not a guarantee of perfection - far from it.

- Marjorie Liu

As creators and as readers, we need to always be pushing it - by looking for the books, looking for the artists and people and stories to support what we feel to be a better representation of all women. Of real women.

- Marjorie Liu

I don't think of myself as having any freedom when it comes to how 'Monstress' is structured and how the story is going because a comic book has to be even more tightly structured than a novel, because there is no room for mistakes. Once the art is done, the art is done.

- Marjorie Liu

Male heroes are entitled to particular privileges, and why not the women as well?

- Marjorie Liu

I feel like the character of Han Solo is irreverent. A very serious, precious story about Han Solo would not be that enjoyable.

- Marjorie Liu

We're not accustomed to giving women the space to express the full range of emotions and flaws that men are permitted. Anger and aggressiveness aren't part of the scale of what is acceptable behavior in women, whereas men - in reality and in fiction - are allowed a much fuller range of emotion.

- Marjorie Liu

Comics writing is for your artist. It's not for the general reader; it's for the artist. So I love writing scripts for artists.

- Marjorie Liu

My dad is Chinese, and my mom is a white American, and they married only ten years after the United States Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal to ban mixed marriages. Imagine that. Marriages between people of different races - now common and accepted - were illegal in many states up until the late Sixties.

- Marjorie Liu

Take 'Ex Machina.' Everyone said it was one of the great feminist works of science fiction. But what I found disappointing is that everything about the main female character is defined by men.

- Marjorie Liu

I love writing romance, along with science fiction and fantasy - and my books usually meld all three to some degree.

- Marjorie Liu

I got into comics because I wrote an 'X-Men' novel for Pocket Books, and I introduced myself to the head of recruitment at Marvel. I'd heard through the grapevine they liked the book, so that gave me the courage to go up to them and be like, 'Hey, if you ever need a writer, here I am.'

- Marjorie Liu

I could be shooting myself in the foot, but in some ways, I feel I've said all I've needed to say when to comes to, say, the 'X-Men.' I think I've hit the bright points, I think I've hit what I wanted to hit, and I can be happy moving on doing other things.

- Marjorie Liu

Superheroes are the best of us. Never mind all those powers or the crazy costumes. The heart of a superhero is meant to inspire.

- Marjorie Liu

I had never been a comic book person before, really, because I had no access to them. Once I had access, I thought that these are just another avenue for telling stories and delving into the imagination.

- Marjorie Liu

We like to imagine that women would do a better job of ruling the world - and I'm one of those optimists - but women aren't a superior kind of life form just because of our gender. We're awesome but not perfect. We're human. Just like men.

- Marjorie Liu

Individual writers can certainly make a difference, but they are working within a system, an institution, that still holds tremendous power over whose voices are heard and whose voices are rewarded.

- Marjorie Liu

I love writing novels, but there is something deeply invigorating about the comic-book medium.

- Marjorie Liu

A novel is 400 pages; it's an endurance race. There's no artist, so I have to describe everything. It's all prose. Whereas with comics, I can rely on the artist. It's really wonderful to have that collaboration and to not always feel the burden of describing everything myself and also just to have someone who can paint the world.

- Marjorie Liu

When I'm writing comics, I'm also visualizing how the story will look on the page - not even always art-wise, but panel-wise, like how a moment will be enhanced dramatically by simply turning a page and getting a reveal. It requires thinking about story in a way I never had to consider when I was writing prose.

- Marjorie Liu

We've been conditioned to be incredibly avoidant. 'I'm afraid I'll be called a racist if I say something wrong,' is the familiar retort. Well, okay, that's scary and difficult, but staying silent, avoiding the issue, doesn't mean that racism goes away.

- Marjorie Liu

The thing about Gambit is that he's a man who knows how to adapt to survive. He plays things by ear, depending on the situation, and never feels obligated to follow the rules, because the only rules that matter are his own sense of honor. Ultimately, that sense of honor includes 'doing no harm' - at least, not to the innocent.

- Marjorie Liu

To all the young kids of color - and not so young - people who want to use their voices, who are thinking, 'This seems difficult because I don't see myself out there,' I tell you, you must be persistent because we need you. We need you so, so badly.

- Marjorie Liu

If men disappeared tomorrow, we'd still be having the abortion debate. If men disappeared tomorrow, there would still be racism and conflicts over religion.

- Marjorie Liu

Muscles are fleeting. Bodies give out. But integrity, honor? The confidence to be oneself, to follow one's heart? The compassionate drive to help others, even at great risk? That's strength.

- Marjorie Liu

When I first came to comics, it was, like, dudes. The feeling, the air, the presence is overwhelmingly male.

- Marjorie Liu

I think we worry way too much about where books should fit inside genres. In a romance, the hero and heroine are on a journey together, and no matter how awful it gets, by the end of the book they'll be in love, with the probability of a happy ending.

- Marjorie Liu

Finding the voice of a character, no matter who it is - from Black Widow to Han Solo - is the first and most important hurdle for me to cross in any work of fiction.

- Marjorie Liu

People either fall into two camps, where they're pro-fanfic, or they're anti-fanfic. I would not have had the skills to write and publish my first novel if I hadn't been writing fanfic.

- Marjorie Liu

Every single girl in the world has had to fight to have herself heard, to have space, and to have a self in societies that try their best to deny them all three.

- Marjorie Liu

I was going to be a lawyer, and I had studied hard, but then it suddenly occurred to me in a very deep, profound way that I didn't want to keep practicing law for the rest of my life.

- Marjorie Liu

I don't think X-23's past is the most interesting thing about her, but it's not like she can escape it, either.

- Marjorie Liu

Growing up as Chinese-American, as someone who experienced racism, questions of 'otherness' are always at the forefront of my mind.

- Marjorie Liu

We imagine 'the end' as a world-devastating event, but every time there's a terrible earthquake, a tsunami, an outbreak of disease - that's apocalyptic, on a micro-scale.

- Marjorie Liu

The greatest enemy one ever faces is one's own self.

- Marjorie Liu

It's great we have a female Thor. It's great we have a black Captain America. But those are just optics; it's optics of change... Unless you have the structural diversity, the structural change behind the scenes - more women, more people of color actually calling the shots and editing these books - those optics won't last.

- Marjorie Liu

A dark, fantastic adventure set in an alternate 1900s Asia, 'Monstress' is buried deep in the supernatural. It's a story I've wanted to tell for a long time - it just took me awhile to put all the pieces together.

- Marjorie Liu

Han Solo has always been - and I think for a lot of people, too - this iconic character who's the absolute definition of cool.

- Marjorie Liu

In my solo series, I feel like I've often dealt with groups of people.

- Marjorie Liu

My solo series, in some ways, have been rarely truly solo.

- Marjorie Liu

I think that comic books have appealed to female readers for years.

- Marjorie Liu

I think when you look at the diversity of the readership, all the different people who love comics, I want comics to reflect the real world, and I think Marvel does a good job of trying to do that, but I don't think there's ever an end point when it comes to creating diversity and creating stories that people can relate to.

- Marjorie Liu

Women have been writing strong women characters for a long time - hello, Maxine Hong Kingston! - it's just taken mainstream comics a really long while to catch up.

- Marjorie Liu

I don't want to give people the wrong advice to follow their dreams no matter what, because it's not fun to be a starving artist. But on the other hand, life is short, and if you are burning with a passion to do something, then do it. Work hard, study hard at it, and don't give up.

- Marjorie Liu

Word of mouth is the saving grace of us all. If you love something and you think your friend will love it, just talk about it.

- Marjorie Liu

I don't write fight scenes in comics all that well. I think they're a waste of space unless they can move a story forward in some compelling fashion. You've only got twenty-two pages to work with. Why throw that away on a set of meaningless punches?

- Marjorie Liu

I'm a writer and a feminist of color, and I've written complex, powerful women for my entire career. I'm just one voice, but there are many others like me.

- Marjorie Liu

Part of the reason why my folks - why any immigrant family - wants their kids to go into law or medicine is because there's the promise of reliable work. That's a powerful idea that got hammered into my head growing up: Be this thing, or else you'll starve.

- Marjorie Liu

I'm really bothered by questions of humanity, questions of war, questions of slavery.

- Marjorie Liu

Because there are almost no men in 'Monstress,' we're focused completely on women. It's removed from traditional structures.

- Marjorie Liu

It's very scary to become someone new, to take that path less followed.

- Marjorie Liu

Timing is irrelevant when it comes to desire.

- Marjorie Liu

As women, we have to deal with constant threats of violence. And it's in our media and fiction, too. So we internalize it.

- Marjorie Liu

Sana Takeda is a genius. It's really that simple. Her vision and sense of story and beauty is beyond compare. I loved working with her on 'X-23.' I knew, though, that she could do much more beyond the constraints of a traditional superhero story.

- Marjorie Liu

I had my dreams, and even though everyone told me that they weren't practical, I knew in my heart that this is what I had to do. Even if it ended up being a failure, I had to make the attempt.

- Marjorie Liu

I wanted to be her; I wanted to write her. Red Sonja became anchored in my imagination like a mountain.

- Marjorie Liu

Every single girl, whether we want to recognize it or not, is a warrior.

- Marjorie Liu

I was always into fantasy characters, stories of magic, but after Red Sonja, I became obsessed with the persona, the image, of the warrior woman - the sword-wielding, defiant, fearless woman.

- Marjorie Liu

I love writing prose. I really love writing prose. It's very pleasurable for me.

- Marjorie Liu

There are many different ways to express intimacy - a look, a touch - and I think it enriches the characters and stories when you create those moments and then build on them.

- Marjorie Liu

I don't want it to be a mission, but of course I always love to see more diversity in comics. I always love to see more women.

- Marjorie Liu

I can't control what a reader takes from a story.

- Marjorie Liu

I didn't know how to write comics. I had to teach myself.

- Marjorie Liu

I love writing comics too much.

- Marjorie Liu