JWJoss Whedon

109 collected words

Joss Whedon

Dates not recorded

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

▷ Play this voice Search these words ↗Place in time ↗life truth justice learning knowledge friendship faith death

Quotations and sayings

01Undated

Because it’s no longer enough to be a decent person. It’s no longer enough to shake our heads and make concerned grimaces at the news. True enlightened activism is the only thing that can save humanity from itself.

Joss Whedon / quote

02Undated

In my generation, there was a single girl given the strength and skill to fight the spread of darkness...but in your generation, there are nearly two thousand with the powers of the slayer, and not all of them have chosen to use their newfound abilities conscientiously.

Joss Whedon / quote

03Undated

Why do you write strong female characters?Because you're still asking me that question.

Joss Whedon / quote

04Undated

Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping... waiting... and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir... open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us. Passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love... the clarity of hatred... the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we'd know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank. Without passion, we'd be truly dead.

Joss Whedon / quote

05Undated

In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer.

Joss Whedon / quote

06Undated

There's no fuzzy middle ground. You either believe that women are people or you don't. It's that simple.

Joss Whedon / quote

07Undated

To forgive is an act of compassion... It's not done because people deserve it. It's done because they need it.

Joss Whedon / quote

08Undated

Wanna know what a bullet feels like, Warren? A real one? It’s not like in the comics…I think you need to. Feel it…It’s not going to make a neat little hole. First - it’ll obliterate your internal organs. Your lung will collapse, feels like drowning…When it finally hits your spine, it’ll blow your central nervous system-…I’m talking. The pain will be unbearable, but you won’t be able to move… A bullet usually travels faster than this, of course. But the dying? It seems like it takes forever. Something, isn’t it? One tiny piece of metal destroys everything. It ripped her insides out… It took her light away. From me. From the world… And now the one person who should be here is gone - and a waste like you gets to live. A tiny piece of metal. Can you feel it now?

Joss Whedon / quote

09Undated

Everything I do is going to contain the message that men who are going to be comfortable with powerful women are going to be more powerful men

Joss Whedon / quote

10Undated

Loneliness is about the scariest thing out there.

Joss Whedon / quote

11Undated

I just thought, ‘Wait a minute, if I’m going to start writing again, I have to go to the quiet place.' And this is the least quiet place I’ve ever been in my life. … It’s like taking the bar exam at Coachella. It’s like, ‘Um, I really need to concentrate on this! Guys! Can you all just…I have to…It’s super important for my law!

Joss Whedon / quote

12Undated

Something can be very funny and then suddenly very terrifying-very exciting, and suddenly very ridiculous. I think that’s what life is like, that’s what interests me.

Joss Whedon / quote

13Undated

So, why do you write these strong female characters?Because you’re still asking me that ques

Joss Whedon / quote

14Undated

River Tam (Summer Glau): No power in the 'verse can stop me.

Joss Whedon / quote

15Undated

She's terse. I can be terse. Once, in flight school, I was laconic.

Joss Whedon / quote

16Undated

Ain't all buttons and charts, little albatross. Know what the first rule of flying is? Well I s'pose you do, since you already know what I'm 'bout to say.I do. But I like to hear you say it.Love. Can know all the math in the 'verse but take a boat in the air that you don't love? She'll shake you off just as sure as a turn in the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home.

Joss Whedon / quote

17Undated

If you can't do something smart, do something right.

Joss Whedon / quote

18Undated

When you’re telling a story, you’re trying to connect to people in a particular way … The way in which you guys have inhabited this world, this universe, has made you part of it, part of the story. You are living in Firefly. When I see you guys, I don’t think the show is off the air. I don’t think there’s a show; I think that’s what the world is like. … The story is our lives.

Joss Whedon / quote

19Undated

The thing about a hero, is even when it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, he's going to keep trying to do right and make up for what's gone before, just because that's who he is.

Joss Whedon / quote

20Undated

Ultron: Stark asked for a savior, and settled for a slave.The Vision: I suppose we're both disappointments.Ultron: [laughs] I suppose we are.The Vision: Humans are odd. They think order and chaos are somehow opposites and try to control what won't be. But there is grace in their failings. I think you missed that.Ultron: They're doomed!The Vision: Yes... but a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts. It is a privilege to be among them.Ultron: You're unbelievably naïve.The Vision: Well, I was born yesterday.

Joss Whedon / quote

21Undated

Everything I do in its essence is about helplessness. That's the story I want to tell all the time. It's the story I wanted to live - somebody who appears to be, or is, weak becoming stronger.

Joss Whedon / quote

22Undated

Why aren’t you asking a hundred other guys why they don’t write strong women characters? I believe that what I’m doing should not be remarked upon, let alone honoured… Because equality is not a concept. It’s not something we should be striving for. It’s a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women. And 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 is confronted with it. We need equality. Kinda now. 'So, why do you write these strong female characters?' Because you’re still asking me that ques

Joss Whedon / quote

23Undated

At the end of the day I have many answers for it. It has to do with my mom, who was an extraordinary woman, and a great feminist. It has to do with the people in my life. It has to do with a lot of different things, but -- I don't know! Because I'm not just writing from the female characters for other people. I have a desire to see them in our culture -- that was not met for most of my childhood. Except occasionally by James Cameron. [From the 2011 San Diego Comic Con, in response to being asked why he writes strong female characters.]

Joss Whedon / quote

24Undated

Next year, Equality Now will celebrate - if that’s the word - will clock its twentieth year. Two decades of fighting the good fight, fighting the cause, and in case I haven’t been the clear, the cause is that one half of the human race is given the same basic equal rights that the other half enjoys.Or, not given. Given back.That is not a milestone, twenty years, that I intend to go unnoticed. I want to make some noise. I want to make a joyful noise, I want to make too much noise. I want the neighbors to complain. I’m tired of being polite about something that matters so much.

Joss Whedon / quote