“Nobody’s angry all the time, unless you’re a psycho.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I think portraying the Joker’s point of view would do a disservice to that character. As soon as you get inside his head he would lose so much power.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Characters with questionable morals are sexy.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I think the Joker resonates with people as much as Batman does.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I have to challenge myself, and I have to challenge the reader. We should be weaving and working on new stories and not the same story over and over.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Everybody’s got scars. It’s not so unique.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I really like language – and slang in particular, and just the shorthand we use when we communicate with people.”
― Brian Azzarello
“To ground a character in reality, you have to use shades of gray.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I like alleys. They are the backdoor to everything.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I’m interested in damaged people because we’ve all been roughed up in one way or another.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I’m happy with the way ‘100 Bullets’ ends terribly.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I think a lot of superheroes seem to have the same value system; they just have a different costume. They’re all doing exactly the same thing.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Good people struggle against what’s imperfect about them. The people that we call ‘bad’ people embrace that kind of stuff, embrace the darker side.”
― Brian Azzarello
“It is our mistakes that make us interesting, right?”
― Brian Azzarello
“Believe it or not, but ‘White Heat’ and ‘Little Caesar’ keep dancing around in my brainpan while I’m writing ‘Moonshine.’”
― Brian Azzarello
“For me, a story always goes out of a mistake. Somebody makes a mistake, and that becomes the story. Probably that explains why my series are kind of dark: because there’s a problem to begin with.”
― Brian Azzarello
“The metro section of the newspaper every day is full of stuff I can use. It’s the greatest inspiration for me because it’s full of endings. That’s where the ends of stories show up.”
― Brian Azzarello
“This thing is such a ripple, the way lives are affected by gentrification. On one hand, yes, you’re cleaning up this area, you’re making it more livable for people. But you’re not saying anything about the people that live there.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I have a reputation for writing all kinds of hard-core, violent things.”
― Brian Azzarello
“If you read any sort of, like, military general autobiographies or biographies, most of them never wanted to fight, you know? It’s necessary. War is necessary.”
― Brian Azzarello
“It’s depicted in comics as, like, this gung-ho, ‘Let’s die in battle, in glory’ idea, because that’s just the genre we’re in. But that’s not what war really is.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Like, why is Batman so relevant? It’s because he gets reinvented constantly. There are a lot of stories you can tell with that character.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Characters work really well when they’re reflective of the times that they’re operating in.”
― Brian Azzarello
“DC characters are from a different era than Marvel characters.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Civil war, now, 100 years in the future – the things that motivate human beings, they don’t change emotionally.”
― Brian Azzarello
“’100 Bullets’ is such a post-modern noir; there are certain rules you gotta follow.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Hollywood, they love everything, but they move like molasses. They’ll option anything – the worst idea in the world will get optioned just because they want to keep the other person from getting that idea.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I think, personally, it’s our flaws that define us to us – or maybe it’s just me.”
― Brian Azzarello
“What’s the trick to writing a good bad guy? Well, for me, it’s always been the idea that you pit yourself against authority, you know? I think that’s what it takes – and then you can write villainous characters.”
― Brian Azzarello
“If there’s nothing interesting about a character, people leave because there’s no desire to see what happens.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Denny O’Neil did some great things with Joker – I thought Greg Rucka used him really well in ‘Gotham Central.’”
― Brian Azzarello
“Superman is pretty much the way he was – you know – what he’s always been. A lot of the Marvel characters are products of their time. I think Batman, as a character, has been able to adapt; he’s pretty malleable.”
― Brian Azzarello
“One of the problems in modern comics is that they keep referencing themselves endlessly.”
― Brian Azzarello
“People have told me that the dialogue in ‘100 Bullets’ is very realistic. I don’t agree.”
― Brian Azzarello
“When I write, I’m talking to myself constantly to make sure that it sounds OK; it has kind of a nice rhythm and a nice jump to it.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Man, I think mistakes – that’s what makes us distinct human beings. Those imperfections.”
― Brian Azzarello
“We finished ‘Spaceman,’ and before we were even done with that, we had already been talking about what we were going to do next.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I didn’t really like superheroes. I liked monsters and war comics.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I have never met a feminist who didn’t have a father.”
― Brian Azzarello
“From a storytelling perspective, perfection is death.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I like everything that is wrong about Chicago.”
― Brian Azzarello
“These are the kinds of stories I’m really interested in telling: bad stories about bad people, I’m comfortable with.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I’m not the monthly comic guy, and I never really have been.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Basically, I think that Gotham is all of our urban nightmares and fears made into reality. Instead of hearing footsteps from behind you while you walk down the streets, turning around and finding nobody there, there is somebody there.”
― Brian Azzarello
“One of the reasons Batman works as a character is that it’s not beyond possibility that he could exist – you could become Batman if you had a billion dollars at your disposal. There’s nothing paranormal or superhuman or supernatural about that character. And I think his villains work the same way. You could be one of his villains just as easily.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Wonder Woman is not horrible. Her villains should be.”
― Brian Azzarello
“When something is well-crafted, you know it, and the enjoyment comes from experiencing it.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Writing ‘The Spirit’ is really fun.”
― Brian Azzarello
“My mother would make a good Wonder Woman.”
― Brian Azzarello
“’100 Bullets’ is a novel on its own. ‘Brother Lono,’ other than the main character, has nothing to do with ‘100 Bullets.’”
― Brian Azzarello
“I’m a Cubs season ticket holder.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I know ‘100 Bullets’ is not what traditionally people think of as comics.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Noir deals with the disenfranchised: people who can’t catch a break under normal circumstances. In noir books, you root for these people, but you know they are going to fail. That’s what makes them so compellingly human. I can relate to that kind of stuff.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Once you’re president, there’s blood on your hands – there’s no way around it.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I like being a cult figure.”
― Brian Azzarello
“When I was writing about Gotham in ‘Broken City,’ I was writing about Chicago. I just substituted the names.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Paris is wild; it’s decadent… it’s so many things.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Painted talking heads is just boring.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Everybody’s got a father. Even if he’s not the nicest guy in the world.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I’m usually done working by Happy Hour.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I’m kind of a graphic novel ambassador.”
― Brian Azzarello
“I’m always interested in using comics in different ways.”
― Brian Azzarello
“Why do something that’s already been done?”
― Brian Azzarello
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