Brian K. Vaughan Quotes

All good children's stories are the same: young creature breaks rules, has incredible adventure, then returns home with the knowledge that aforementioned rules are there for a reason.Of course, the actual message to the careful reader is: break rules as often as you can, because who the hell doesn't want to have an adventure?

~ Brian K. Vaughan

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

But nothing warps time quite like childhood

~ Brian K. Vaughan

The world is a terrifying place, more than I ever realized. But if I had my whole life to do over again, that's literally the only thing I'd change. I'd stop being so afraid of other people.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

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

Some dreams really do come true. That said, most dreams are weird as shit.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

Well, I've always wanted to call my son

~ Brian K. Vaughan

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

Most of us think we can hide our weaknesses from the world, and sometimes, we're right. But only if we're very very strong.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

I always think fondly of my years inside Detention Center LC/766B.The women and the children I met had all lost people they loved, but they never wallowed in despair.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. My fellow inmates/classmates (and really, what's the difference?) showed me it was more interesting to concentrate on the living.Because death is fucking predictable... ...but life has science experiments and free time and surprise naps and who knows what comes next?

~ Brian K. Vaughan

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

You know that old cliché about how millions of deaths being a statistic, while the loss of just one life is a tragedy? If that's true, what is it when you lose something that never even had a chance to be born? I've had a lot of relationships in my time, platonic or otherwise, but the ones I think about most are those that never quite made it to term. The dashing first date who didn't call you back. The lady on the train you had that amazing conversation with but never saw again. The cool neighbor kid you met the first time a week before he moved away. I guess I'm just haunted by all that potential energy. One moment, the universe presents you with this amazing opportunity for new possibilities and then...

~ Brian K. Vaughan

The advice to kill your darlings has been attributed to various authors across the various galaxies... and Mister Heist hated them all.Why teach young writers to edit out whatever it is they feel most passionate about?Better to kill everything in their writing they DON'T love as much.Until only the darlings remain.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

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

Some general advice about writing:WRITE MORE, DO OTHER STUFF LESS.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

Over the years, we met every kind of person imaginable. But no one makes worse first impressions than writers.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

Anyone with an autobiography is almost definitely an evil piece of shit.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

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

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

Ask a child's guardians what it takes to be good at their jobs, and most will answer with a single word... SACRIFICE. Parents give up so much: time, sleep, freedom, money, intimacy... pretty much everything but complaining how much they sacrifice.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

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

The Government's supposed to be there for people when nobody else is, right? But it never works like that.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

Everything good in New York used to be something awful, I guess.And everything awful used to be something good.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

Sorry, kid. Whedon got it wrong. Stakes don't kill vampires, they just give us heartburn.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

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

It would be a very long time before we saw any of our original pursuers again. At least, it seemed kinda long. But nothing warps time quite like childhood. I remember visits to faraway worlds that lasted only a few days but felt like entire lifetimes. And then there were the endless journeys between destinations that somehow went by in the blink of an eye. You know how it goes.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

Ciba: I thought you were supposed to be some big brave war hero. What about that goddamn gold star you polish every night?Natalya: You know what this shiny piece of tin is, you fucking space cadet? It's the way stupid boys trick other stupid boys into dying for bullshit causes ... and I'm done acting like one of them.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

You're right that not everything we do has to have some kind of social agenda, but that doesn't mean it can only be anesthetizing crap.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

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

Fuck the Bureau! Their entire outfit is half the size of the NYPD. I've got more officers who speak Arabic in one precinct that you guys have in the entire D.O.D.!

~ Brian K. Vaughan

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

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

My parents grew up during the space race, and I think they imagined the future would be us living on moon bases and everyone has rocket shoes.

~ Brian K. Vaughan

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

That was the appealing thing about comics: There literally is no budget in comics. You're only limited by your imagination.

~ Brian K. Vaughan