J. Michael Straczynski Quotes

You can't always relate to the big action things, but you can relate to small moments.

On most TV shows, you work on a set and do some location.

I've always been a science fiction fan since I had understood the conception of what a story was.

Budget grows out of the story. If you're writing a story with people caught in an elevator for most of the film, you're pretty sure it won't be a $200 million movie.

Science fiction shows are traditionally about the gimmick or the gadget and tend to be emotionally cool to the touch.

I want to have time. When you're doing a monthly book, you're like a man racing after a bus. You're breathless and red-faced. I want to build in quality control.

When I saw Wonder Woman being constantly put in positions where she'd get tied up with her own rope, or held hostage, even as a kid, my reaction was 'C'mon, she's too smart for that.'

The problem with writing a monthly book is that you're going through your work like a man running for a bus, red-faced and out of breath. There isn't time for reflection or critical self-examination.

I am a huge zombie fan. I have probably seen the George Romero movies 100 times each, without exaggeration.

I like to consider my mind an open door. It's just not a revolving door.

Never follow somebody else's path; it doesn't work the same way twice for anyone.

I'm a big believer in the idea that while we are the sum of our tears, we are also the product of our choices in how we deal with those tears.

For me, there's nothing sexier than a woman who can argue me into the ground and outsmart me...a woman who knows her own mind and isn't afraid to speak it.

When a book of mine comes out, I instantly go hunting the net, not for praise, but for criticism, because that's how you learn, from people who don't have to be polite to you.

If your going to have delusions, you might as well go for the really satisfying ones.

I'm all for teaching creation and allowing prayers in schools, as soon as scholars begin teaching Darwinism and geometry in church.

There can always be new beginnings... even for people like us.

What are the purposes and priorities of teaching? . . . First, to inspire. Second, to challenge. Third, and only third, to impart information.

Stun settings are for people who can't commit.

The universe considers me its personal cat toy.

Superhero stories are kind of in my DNA from childhood on, so I think I'm genetically drawn to playing in the genre when the opportunity presents itself.

When you're writing a story in bits and pieces, month in and month out, there really isn't time or space for reflection, no room to learn what those scripts had to teach you.

It's really important to me to keep growing as a writer, to look for new challenges and be harshly critical of my own work in order to learn and tell better stories.

My house looks like it was decorated by a 14-year old with a platinum American Express card.

I've changed my mind. I've decided that at the end I want to be cremated and my ashes scattered over someone I don't like.

A lot of the futuristic space stuff seemed to me to be a very cool form of science-fiction, so that was my first real baptism in the genre.

The sky was full of stars, and every star an exploding ship.

Whenever you write for someone else, you're always aware - sometimes overtly, other times at an almost cellular, subliminal level - of the rules about what you can and can't do.

I always knew that I was going to be a writer. There was no question in my mind about that.

I wake up every morning knowing how ridiculously lucky I am to be able to do what I love for a living, and that sense of wonder never, ever wears off.

To understand this whole area, you have to stop thinking like a viewer and start thinking like a network programming exec.

Find what scares you and do it.

A movie is a movie and a book is a book, and they have different rules.

Coming from TV and film, rule number one is that you always service the main character first and foremost. If that's not working, you've got nothing.

Everyone in the entertainment business gets crappy contracts when we start out, and into the middle of our careers. It's the nature of the business.

I like writing. It's partly control freak, and partly I really like what I do for a living. I have the luckiest job in the world. I can get up every day and do what I love for a living.

The whole point of having great characters is the opportunity to explore them more deeply with time, re-interpreting them for each new age.

Did Alan Moore get screwed on his contract? Of course. Lots of people get screwed, but we still have Spider-Man and lots of other heroes.

Avoid the tyranny of the reasonable voice...it will guarantee a complacency of never trying anything adventurous...

Accidents happen. That's what everyone says. But in a quantum universe there are no such things as accidents, only possibilities and probabilities folded into existence by perception.

Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.

No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. For one person, in the dark where no one will ever know or see.