Top 66 Paul Dini Quotes

I look at the Marvel movies and the DC movies and various creators’ creations, and I think, you know, that’s really pretty cool.

As much as I love elements of Spider-Man’s past, I don’t really want to go back in and retell the Gwen Stacy and Green Goblin story in animation just so I can do my take on it. I don’t want to redo the first ‘Spider Slayer’ story.

Creativity, for a lot of young people, is a coping mechanism. It’s the only place they feel comfortable. It’s the only time they feel like they’re being heard or can make a difference, is if they can go into a room and do a drawing or go to a garage and play a song or retreat to this world.

I like artists to have some freedom.

A lot of times, female characters – particularly the villains – come off as very one-dimensional. They get the short shrift in that they’re only given the snappy comeback, or they’re relegated to a very stereotypical role. I want to know what’s driving them – that’s what’s really interesting.

‘Boo & Hiss’ has been a passion project of mine for a couple of years. I was intrigued with the idea of what would happen in a classic cartoon predator/prey relationship if the predator – in this case, a cat – got to finally do in his adversary only to have the mouse return as a ghost and bedevil the cat.

What makes Batman and what makes other superheroes work is the myth that when life is at its lowest, and when you need a hero, a hero swings down and helps you.

As much fun as it is gaming, I have so much to do that I’ve had to get away from them. I still enjoy them. When I go to a friend’s house and they have a game on, I’ll happily join in and play.

I wouldn’t call the Joker exactly easy to write.

Kids love the Hulk, but they’re not really sure: ‘Is he a monster or is he a hero?’

Jim Henson once allowed me to visit the Muppets on set and spent an entire day showing me how he and the other puppeteers performed Kermit and all the characters! After that, I was lucky enough to work with both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on many fun animation projects and learned so much from them.

I felt that, with ‘Zatanna,’ I had a chance to do a story about a strong, driven woman.

There’s a different energy to Spider-Man than there is to Batman.

If your child has something creative they really want to do, it’s up to you, their parent, to help make that happen.

I’m not saying I talk to cartoon characters all the time, but the characters are very real to me. In a very non-insane way.

Quite often in comic book movies, very good actresses are relegated to being the girlfriend or the helper or the sidekick or something.

I’m a very visual thinker, so the characters are running through my head, doing what they’re doing when I’m writing them. And there’ll be moments where I’ll just kind of throw a look off to the side as if I’m talking to one of the characters. It’s always been something that I’ve had with me since I was a little kid.

I was working in cartoons. I could go to Comic-Con, buy the Hal Jordan ring, I could buy animation cels, but at the end of the day, I come back to an empty apartment. I had a life that was only around me, and when I was broken, my world was broken.

There are some short stories in R. Crumb comics that are just wonderful and touch me in ways no other comics do.

To overcome any form of adversity, to not give up, to not give up on yourself, your dreams, to not sequester yourself away from people – that’s the most important thing to do with your life.

I’ll continue doing ‘Jingle Belle’ as long as I’ve got a good story for her.

I think nobody knows more about comic book characters than Seth Green. I thought I knew a lot, and he leaves me in the dust.

It’s wrong to become a bully yourself or to take it out on other people, and in my case, I just retreated to a place where I was safe. And that place was my imagination, books, and television.

Bruce Wayne needs a sense of humor to do his job. Batman, for a very long time, was going to a very dark place.

As much as I liked the build-up to Christmas, the week after always socked me with the blues.

Jeph Loeb has been great to work with, and he’s been really supportive of some really bizarre ideas I’ve had.

The agents of S.M.A.S.H. are the most powerful team in the Marvel universe in terms of muscle power.

I get it, cops deal with a lot, but at the same time, we crave justice, and we do want to believe things are going to be all right.

Batman doesn’t use a gun. When Bruce Wayne thinks he had to resort to a street thug’s level to defend himself and the girl he was rescuing, he decides he can’t be Batman anymore.

I’ve always liked the Krampus character, and I’ve always been fascinated with him, especially the tradition that he was such a part of the holiday season in Europe, in Germany, Austria, northern Italy, various other places.

If the opportunity came my way, if somebody wanted me to look over a script or sit in a room in sort of like a brainstorming session… I would certainly be open for that.

Batman is pretty much a self-trained guy. I think it would be fun to do a character like Superman or Captain Marvel or maybe Green Lantern, somebody who’s got a completely different resource for fighting crime and fighting villains.

With ‘Wonder Woman,’ I did one story with Alex Ross, and I had a lot of fun doing it, but I don’t think I could do a ‘Wonder Woman’ book on a regular basis, because there’s so much history there and so much mythology and everything.

Mickey Mouse did not stay the little squeaky guy in ‘Steamboat Willie.’ He went on to have many different versions.

The old Rankin-Bass animated specials seemed to exist in a loosely shared reality, which is what attracted me to them. Santa, Snow Miser, Rudolph, Frosty, even the Easter Bunny seemed to be on nodding acquaintance with each other, even if only in cameo appearances in each other’s cartoons.

In every story I’ve written with Batman, there’s an element of justice – you never want to have the story end on a defeatist or a cynical note.

I really didn’t have any plan for her other than the henchgirl role, who was better at getting laughs out of the other gang members than the Joker was. I gave her the name Harley Quinn because I thought Harley was a fun name for a girl, and a lot of ‘Batman’ character names have a bit of a pun to them, like E Nygma.

I remember when I saw ‘The Dark Knight’ movie, and I was sitting there watching it, and there actually came one or two places where I had trouble divorcing myself from the reality of the locations because it was filmed in Chicago, and I know that city quite well.

Everybody looks back on what they studied and what they grew up with.

That’s the thing about writing for a lot of the villains is that, as a writer, you kind of have to put the best part of your own personality aside and instead focus on whatever little strange quirks you may have in your personality.

‘Batman’ is pretty much real world-centric.

I remember very vividly going to school, being very happy, and then just having guys there who were just out to make my life miserable.

I always think of the Joker as the ultimate bully. Nothing he says is funny except to him.

If you let tragedies stop you along the way, then you’re never going to grow as a person.

Most female characters have either been the temptress – like a Betty Boop type – or the victim – like an Olive Oil type.

I grew up loving cartoons, comics, magic, and writing.

Encourage your kids to be creative. When you see them tracing a character from TV or a comic, say something like, ‘That’s nice. Now how about you create a character yourself?’ Keep kids curious and excited about creating.

For years, humorous characters in cartoons have been almost exclusively male.

If ‘Jingle Belle’ harkens back to anything, it’s sort of the Harvey Comics. Not really ‘Archie,’ but more of a teenage version of what Harvey Comics would have become, with the type of fantasy wonderland of her and her various friends.

You have to remember, when someone hurts you, that you are so much more than what they took from you.

There was a time I was willing to be a clown for people who I felt were the perfect person for me.

I was writing a script about the Joker menacing a regular person who had strayed into his path, and I needed to give him a gang of henchmen to work with him. The idea occurred to me, let’s put in a female henchperson, because that seemed like a fun variation on the regular big thug guys.

We’re all painfully aware of how suddenly violence can occur, how crippling it is, and how survivors have to find a way back from that.

In ‘Batman Beyond,’ Terry McGinnis has the responsibility of protecting Gotham City, as well as maintaining a home and social life. He’s also got a single mom and a pesky younger brother, which young kids will relate to.

To some degree, I don’t think ‘Batman’ works in a completely modern city; I think Gotham has be reflective of his personality and those of his enemies.

I looked at comics like a buffet table, where you take a little bit of something and leave the other stuff behind.

Initially, kids are attracted to Superman as a hero because he can take care of problems and still appear as friendly as your dad.

There’s a little bit of Sid and Nancy to the Joker and Harley look, which I always felt would not be a bad look if they were in a live-action movie.

It’s a lot of fun to identify with a character who lives by their own rules.