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Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon Quotes

Screenwriter

Joss Whedon, born on June 23, 1964, is a renowned American screenwriter. His works are known for their unique narrative style and profound character development, with notable contributions to series like 'The Avengers' franchise, 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.', and 'Big Hero 6'.

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All People Ifs Thinking Writing Knows Want Way Buffy The Vampire Slayer Men Stories

Famous Joss Whedon Quotes

“I think everyone who makes movies should be forced to do television. Because you have to finish. You have to get it done, and there are a lot of decisions made just for the sake of making decisions. You do something because it's efficient and because it gets the story told and it connects to the audience.”

Thinking Should Made Done Stories Decision Audience Television Sake Movie Efficient Making Decisions Get It Done Decisions Made

Author:Joss Whedon

“People used to laugh that academics would study Disney movies. There's nothing more important for academics to study, because they shape the minds of our children possibly more than any single thing.”

People Mind Children Important Used Laughing Study Shapes Our Children

Author:Joss Whedon

“The two things that matter the most to me: emotional resonance and rocket launchers. Party of Five, a brilliant show, and often made me cry uncontrollably, suffered ultimately from a lack of rocket launchers.”

Made Two Matter Shows Party Five Cry Emotional Brilliant Two Things Rockets Things That Matter Resonance Made Me Cry

Author:Joss Whedon

“There are two things that I cannot resist: one is musicals and the other is a spaceship in trouble. But I am smart enough not to combine the two things.”

Two Enough Trouble Smart Two Things Spaceships

Author:Joss Whedon

“When I created Buffy, I wanted to create a female icon, but I also wanted to be very careful to surround her with men that not only have no problem with the idea of a female leader, but were in fact engaged and even attracted to the idea.”

Men Ideas Facts Problem Wanted Leader Female Careful Engaged Surround No Problem Icons Female Leaders

Author:Joss Whedon

“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.”

Thinking Knows Giving Shows Happens Watches Audience Worst Kissing Jokes Blow Who I Am Peril

Author:Joss Whedon

“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.”

Thinking Way Littles Persons Sex Internet Opposites Definitions Labels Giants Locked Nerd

Author:Joss Whedon

“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.”

Ifs Writing Mean Ends Matter Turns Team No Matter What Relate Isolation Solitary Storyteller Superhero

Author:Joss Whedon

“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.'”

Ifs Years Guy Enjoy Conversation Jokes Substance Contribution Funny Simpsons

Author:Joss Whedon

“I designed 'Buffy' to be an icon, to be an emotional experience, to be loved in a way that other shows can't be loved. Because it's about adolescence, which is the most important thing people go through in their development, becoming an adult.”

People Way Important Shows Emotional Development Becoming Adults Important Things Adolescence Icons Becoming An Adult

Author:Joss Whedon

“I did my English A level in England, and we studied Shakespeare. I had great, great high school teachers, and we parsed the text within an inch of its life.”

School Levels Teacher High School England Inches School Teachers High School Teachers

Author:Joss Whedon

“I do listen to music. Movie scores, exclusively, because it's all about mood and nonspecificity. I love the way modern movie scoring is all about nonspecificity. You know, if I shuffled the tracks from 'Inception,' I challenge you to tell me which is which.”

Ifs Knows Way Challenges Modern Track Mood Score Listening To Music Inception

Author:Joss Whedon

“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.”

Knows Mean Shows Games Social Lines Secret Mets Basketball Picks Concerned Runners Secret Society Pickups Basketball Game

Author:Joss Whedon

“I don't write just to be clever. But sometimes I do. And if you don't have an understanding of the language, then the way in which it's bent doesn't actually register. It's the old you-gotta-paint-like-them-before-you-can-paint-like-you thing.”

Ifs Way Writing Sometimes Language Understanding Like You Paint Clever Bent Register Old You

Author:Joss Whedon

“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.”

Looks Long Gone Tree Development Scripts Rings Over You

Author:Joss Whedon

“I tend to tell stories that have a lot of momentum; it's not like 'and then months later...' I like things where the momentum of one action rolls into the next one so everything is the sum of that.”

Stories Action Next Months Momentum The Next One

Author:Joss Whedon

“I think it's always important for academics to study popular culture, even if the thing they are studying is idiotic. If it's successful or made a dent in culture, then it is worthy of study to find out why.”

Ifs Thinking Made Important Culture Study Successful Worthy Popular Culture Idiotic

Author:Joss Whedon

“I think there's a possibility that comic book movies are getting a tiny bit better on the one hand because they're no longer made by executives, who are, you know, ninety-year-old bald tailors with cigars, going, 'The kids love this!'”

Thinking Knows Years Made Book Hands Kids Bits Possibility Tiny Comic Executives Comic Book Ninety Cigar Tailors Kids Love

Author:Joss Whedon

“I think to an extent every human being needs to be redeemed somewhat or at least needs to look at themselves and say, 'I've made mistakes, I'm off course, I need to change.' Which is probably the hardest thing for a human being to do, and maybe that's why it interests me so.”

Thinking Needs Humans Looks Made Courses Interest Human Beings Mistake Hardest Hardest Thing Made A Mistake Need A Change Redeemed I've Made Mistakes I Need A Change

Author:Joss Whedon

“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.”

Men Care School Strange Beats Painful Teenager Isolation Existential Adolescence Humiliation Humiliated Nobody Cares Being A Teenager Ladies Man

Author:Joss Whedon

“I'm never interested in movies where you don't care about the people you're watching, and that's my biggest quibble about horror, that kids have gotten stupider and stupider.”

People Care Kids Horror Don't Care

Author:Joss Whedon

“I've seen plenty of films where the projector broke. The problems that we have in the digital age are exactly the same as we had. Instead of, 'There's a hair in the gate,' it's, 'The computer ate the footage.' There will always be things like that going on. Nothing is perfect.”

Problem Age Film Perfect Hair Computer Plenty Broke Digital Gates Digital Age Projectors Nothing Is Perfect

Author:Joss Whedon

“If you try to multitask in the classic sense of doing two things at once, what you end up doing is quasi-tasking. It's like being with children. You have to give it your full attention for however much time you have, and then you have to give something else your full attention.”

Ifs Giving Trying Children Two Ends Attention Classic Two Things

Author:Joss Whedon

“It's only recently women got to be action heroes on TV. Progress is slow, and often non-existent. There's plenty of cool comics with female characters... But all it takes is one Catwoman to set the cause back a decade.”

Character Action Causes Progress Tvs Hero Female Decades Plenty Female Characters Action Heroes Catwoman

Author:Joss Whedon

“Limitations are something that I latch onto - like working in genre, or if you're writing TV, there are act breaks, there's a length of time it's supposed to be. The restrictions of budget and sets can be really useful. When you can have everything, it's very hard to make things feel real and lived in.”

Ifs Feels Writing Real Hard Break Tvs Supposed To Be Limitation Genre Budgets Length Restriction Latches

Author:Joss Whedon

“Making 'The Avengers' was very important to me, but it was also extremely arduous. I missed my friends and I missed my home, so I decided to throw them all on camera, which is the only way I seem to know to relate to people.”

People Knows Way Important Home Seems My Friends Decided Cameras Relate Avengers

Author:Joss Whedon

“People always say I write a lot of pop culture references. Can somebody please count the pop culture references in 'Firefly?' Because I don't know how to put this to you, but there was one. I referenced The Beatles in the pilot.”

People Knows Writing Culture Know How Please Pops Pilots Pop Culture Firefly

Author:Joss Whedon

“Sarah Michelle Gellar's made some really good choices. She's had some bad breaks. She goes with the independent, interesting young filmmakers and then they get slammed, like 'Southland Tales.' I'm proud of what she's trying to do. It's hard.”

Trying Made Hard Young Choices Interesting Break Proud Independent Tales Filmmaker Good Choices

Author:Joss Whedon

“That title, is one of the things I fought for. A lot of people said 'But it's stupid, and it's the title of a comedy movie, and people won't take it seriously,' and I'm sure there are some people who still don't. But for the most part, people do see that we really have a quality show.”

People Said Stills Shows Quality Comedy Stupid Titles Comedy Movie

Author:Joss Whedon

“'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.”

Thinking Philosophy Character Problem Guy Dark Written Particular Carrie Schemes Bad Guys Knights Phenomenal Batman Movie

Author:Joss Whedon

“The misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who's confronted with it.”

Men Humans Soul Culture Conditions Balance Men And Women Every Man Human Condition Misogyny Imbalance Strong Female Characters Equality Of Man Pro Feminist

Author:Joss Whedon

“The networks have a particular agenda, a particular model and structure. It doesn't have anything to do with content. This is not a dis on them - they are a business model, run by business people.”

People Running Particular Models Structure Agendas Business Models

Author:Joss Whedon

“The way a musical can make us feel is unlike anything else, in song and particularly in dance. I think people fly through plate-glass windows when they get shot because movies don't have dance scenes any more. This is what we do instead.”

People Thinking Way Feels Song Scene Shots Window Musical Glasses Plates

Author:Joss Whedon

“There are many films and TV shows I make where people find themselves in fantastical situations; as often as possible their reactions to it are very normal.”

People Shows Film Situation Tvs Normal Reactions Tv Shows

Author:Joss Whedon

“There's a reason Tony Stark makes fun of 'Thor,' and mentions 'Shakespeare' in the park in 'The Avengers.' It's great to play high drama and comedy alongside a modern story.”

Reason Play Stories Fun Comedy Modern Drama Parks Starks Avengers

Author:Joss Whedon

“We are, all of us, incoherent text, and just knowing that - knowing that no matter how much you say, 'I am this' and part of you is not that - means that you can say it.”

Mean Matter Knowing

Author:Joss Whedon

“We need narrative; it feeds us in a particular way, and deconstructing it completely before you've actually experienced it, I think it leaves us unfed.”

Thinking Way Needs Particular Narrative

Author:Joss Whedon

“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.”

People Care Situation Horror Ironic Scream Detachment Presenting

Author:Joss Whedon

“You know, I always was an early morning or late night writer. Early morning was my favorite; late night was because you had a deadline. And at four in the morning you make up some of your most absurd jokes.”

Knows Night Morning Four Late Jokes My Favorite Absurd Deadline Early Morning Late Night

Author:Joss Whedon

“People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy.”

People Writing Episodes Epic Happy Endings Puppy

Author:Joss Whedon

“Half of writing history is hiding the truth.”

Writing Truth Half Hiding Firefly Hiding The Truth Writing History

Author:Joss Whedon

“There’s a fine line between support and stalking and let’s all stay on the right side of that.”

Sides Lines Support Fine Stalking Fine Lines

Author:Joss Whedon

“Every day's a negotiation and sometimes it's done with guns.”

Sometimes Done Gun Negotiation

Author:Joss Whedon

“We have done the impossible. And that makes us mighty.”

Done Impossible Serenity Human Spirit Firefly

Author:Joss Whedon

“If you're going to make a science fiction movie, then have a hover craft chase, for God's sake.”

Ifs Fiction Science Fiction Sake Crafts Science Fiction Movie

Author:Joss Whedon

“Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction. We live in a space ship, dear.”

Sound Space Fiction Science Fiction Dear Ships Psychics Like Something Firefly

Author:Joss Whedon

“This landing is gonna get pretty interesting. Define "interesting". "Oh God, oh God, we're all going to die"? [on speakerphone]: This is the captain: we have a little problem with our entry sequence so we may experience some slight turbulence, then explode.”

May Littles Problem Dies Interesting Captains Sequence Entry Landing Turbulence

Author:Joss Whedon

“Doctor, I'm taking your sister under my protection. If any thing happens to her, anything at all, I swear to you I will get very choked up. Honestly, there could be tears.”

Ifs Happens Tears Doctors Protection Honestly Things Happen Serenity Swear Firefly

Author:Joss Whedon

“I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of.”

Giving Writing Character Hipster Inspiration To Write Inspiring Writing

Author:Joss Whedon

“I'll take crazy over stupid any day.”

Author:Joss Whedon

About the Author

Born: June 23, 1964
Known for: Screenwriter
Quotes: 410

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