Garth Ennis Quotes & Sayings

Remember the seven Ps.

Seven what?

Proper preparation and planning... Prevent piss-poor performance. — Garth Ennis

I can't really put it in one sentence because although on one hand Preacher is about faith and yes it is also about, I suppose, the search for God, the search for faith and the manipulation and the abuse committed by figures in whom I suppose people have faith. — Garth Ennis

I'm sweetness an' motherfuckin' light. Filled from goddamn head to toe wit' love. — Garth Ennis

I guess this is where they send the abortions that live. — Garth Ennis

Men are only so much use. Men are boys. — Garth Ennis

Rayner can't go into politics, she's got more shit on her than Elton John's cock! — Garth Ennis

I guess you can stay sort of true to the story; you don't have to artificially bring the character back from whatever doom you've designed for them, you can tell the story, I suppose, honestly. — Garth Ennis

An' you turn your back on your friend, you may as well go ahead an' join the asshole squad, 'cause you just became one more reason why the damn world's gone to hell. — Garth Ennis

Tension demands release. Unusual tension demands release that can only be described as appalling. — Garth Ennis

Well, I once recall an old master sergeant once telling me that NCOs look after the men so that officers can figure out how to get them killed. That's the difference between maintenance and command. — Garth Ennis

When it comes to Vought, or any corporate outfit really, all that counts to them is profit. They send their kids on planes built by the lowest bidder. They travel on the fuckin, things themselves. Company jets or first class, they still go on 'em. Safety costs. Money's God. — Garth Ennis

No, I would not say that assault with a baseball bat constitutes "justice being done. — Garth Ennis

I can melt steel, fucker, I'll microwave your guts and punch them our your asshole. — Garth Ennis

That's what you get when a bunch of fucks in tights try to save the goddamn day. — Garth Ennis

You don't have in IN you to be like that, Hughie.
You had too nice an upbringing.
Your mom and dad were too good to you.
And I wish you could see that you're not less of a MAN, or some sort of inferior person, just because you can't be harsh and hard and cold. — Garth Ennis

Dude, are you like English or something--?

Yeah, That's right, dude. I'm like English. — Garth Ennis

Well if I ever stick a cape on an' start usin' ordinary human bein's to wipe me arse with, you'll know you were right to worry, won't you? — Garth Ennis

After all, you can't really blame the Waffen S.S. for doing what comes naturally. But a funny thing happened on the way to the moral high ground. — Garth Ennis

Hitman does well and it certainly does well enough to survive, but at the same time I don't want to involve the character into the DC Universe even if it meant more sales, to the point where we sort of upset the balance that we have at the moment. — Garth Ennis

Wouldn't want to write the X-Men, and I suppose the X-Men is the ultimate Marvel comic, and I really wouldn't want to go anywhere near it at all, although on the other had I wouldn't mind having a crack at something like the Punisher. — Garth Ennis

I got taken in by my uncle Frankie, know to his friends as Butcher Franchetti and to his enemies as 'Oh God no, don't kill my children, Don Franchetti'. — Garth Ennis

Jesse: But - but are you okay?

Tulip: Yeah, fine. I checked out the bad guy's place and shot them up a little bit, you know. There were quite a lot of them, and one guy nearly got me with a throwing knife - But I know you'll be cool with that, because you can trust me to handle myself. Let's go. — Garth Ennis

Constantine: "Bullocks. Anyone'll do anything."
Chas: "What? Come on, John, everyone's got a line they reach!"
Constantine: "Helen used to be the wildest woman I ever knew, Chas. A night out with her and you knew the reason we're all here, you knew what we could all be if we made the effort..She never drank or took anything and I knew she'd never need to and now look at the bleedin' state of her. No one has a line and no one has a soddin' moral code either, not outside a John Wayne movie — Garth Ennis

Fuck, that's good. That's habit-formin'. — Garth Ennis

Fuck with the bull, you get the horns. — Garth Ennis

It would have shown people that I was prepared to do that kind of work, although I find myself in a position now where I don't really need to and I could pick and choose the kind of characters I'd like to do. — Garth Ennis

...so I looked at this kid from West Texas, feelin' all cut up an' betrayed 'cause he suddenly realized the Land of the Free been fuckin' him in the ass all his life--an' I told myself, 'Shit, so that's what it's like to be the white boy. Any nigga you ask can tell you that's how America works. — Garth Ennis

Most regular superhero books are designed to go on forever; of course, very few of them do, but the point is they are trying to throw mud against the wall and hope it will stick, and most of it slides off. — Garth Ennis

It's the time to run away an' hide under the bed, an' hope the world's still in one piece when you come out again. — Garth Ennis

I don't necessarily write everything as automatically assuming it will be collected, there's nothing that says Hitman will be collected, though it might be. — Garth Ennis

It's nice to be in a situation where the two books that I write for a sort of regular monthly income are also works that I enjoy immensely, rather than them being some kind of bread and butter, do it because you have to do it. — Garth Ennis

I hear you're a conspiracy nut. Well, this is the conspiracy, kid. It ain't ancient gods an' aliens an' coded shit on the dollar bill. It ain't even a secret, it's somthin' ordinary folks do for a livin' every day of the week. It's business. — Garth Ennis

You gotta be one of the good guys, 'cause there's way too many of the bad. — Garth Ennis

Christ, what a sad collection of losers, mm?'

'Too much time on their hands, mate. Leads to poetry. — Garth Ennis

I don't think this one's business as usual. Me evil cunt sense is tinglin'. — Garth Ennis

Sheriff Root: "Ask Me, I reckon it was niggers"
Deputy: "How you reckon that, Sheriff Root?"
Sheriff Root: "Kinda thing they do"
Deputy: "What, burn two hundred people to death, right down to the bone? They do that?"
Sheriff Root: "MARTIAN niggers — Garth Ennis

You're the only person who means anything to me in the whole world, you're all I've got..."

"Well then you've got nothin. — Garth Ennis

Churches are just clubs for people who like to join things. — Garth Ennis

They're looking for guys like us, he says, young and hungry, not done yet. I say I'm not hungry, Rick, all I am is angry. He says that'll do just fine. — Garth Ennis

Never plan an act of violence. Just let it happen natural. — Garth Ennis

Christ, I think I'd grow old if I lost you. — Garth Ennis

Wait a minute, even I've hearda him. He died savin' the entire universe.

Choked on cum... — Garth Ennis

As the old saying goes: With great power comes the total fuckin' certainty that you're gonna turn into a cunt. — Garth Ennis

Christ, would you look at that shite? Supes an' religion, the two worst things on the planet. — Garth Ennis

I'm the one who steps from the shadows, all trenchcoat and cigarette and arrogance, ready to deal with the madness. Oh, I've got it all sewn up. I can save you. If it takes the last drop of your blood, I'll drive your demons away. I'll kick them in the bollocks and spit on them when they're down and then I'll be gone back into darkness, leaving only a nod and a wink and a wisecrack. I walk my path alone ... who would walk with me? — Garth Ennis

There's immense fun to be had as long as you can sort of sneak it past DC. I have been told on occasion that I need to have more respect for these characters. — Garth Ennis

I'm the perfect girl. You read about me in Maxim or whatever. I tell dirty jokes like I'm one of the guys, and I'm sitting there in my panties and bra so you can see I'm a piece of ass in the bargain. Except I'm real, so I come with all kinds of complications. — Garth Ennis

Preacher is a book that somehow allows me time by its settling on it's characters, that sort of modern gothic western feel. You're not likely to see the boat veering too far from that. — Garth Ennis

Criminal: You can suck my dick, motherfucker!

Detective Bridges: You suck mine! [shoves barrel of pistol in the Criminal's mouth] An' you get used to it, cause you get to Rykers you're gonna find a lot of dick on the goddamn menu! Now grunt twice for yes! You through bitchin'? — Garth Ennis

Folks love fantasy. Beasts the shit outta reality and day of the week. — Garth Ennis

Agent Brendel: These are the descendants of our Lord. I myself have seen the documents that prove it. We have protected them and their predecessors for nineteen centuries, and whatever their appearance now, we believe - we know - their child will be the next messiah.

Starr: He's shitting in his hand, Brendel.

The brother hurls his feces at, and hits Agent Brendel in the face

Agent Brendel: Have faith, Herr Starr. — Garth Ennis

I'm sure you're aware, with the time it takes to put these books together, everything can suddenly start coming out at once even though I wrote anything between one and five years ago. — Garth Ennis

Howard Chaykin was one of the few who dared to make mainstream comics different back in the eighties; it was guys like him, Alan Moore and Frank Miller who made sure there'd be no going back. Howard's work on The Shadow is amongst his very best: razor-sharp character work, sizzling dialogue and an unsurpassed sense of layout and design. — Garth Ennis

We've the whole wide world out there waiting for us, and we've forever to make the most've it. And that's the thing: enjoyin' life. Not livin' death, or anything stupid like that.

What've we got to fear except the sun? — Garth Ennis

Yeah, Hitman I suppose is most of the time a lighter read than Preacher; it was always going to be. — Garth Ennis

I thought you an' I'd already settled the roles in the fucker/fuckee relationship! I guess I thought wrong! — Garth Ennis

Don't take no shit off fools. An' you judge a person by what's in 'em, not how they look. An' you do the right thing. You gotta be one of the good guys, son: 'cause there's way too many of the bad. — Garth Ennis

An interesting man. He was a last minute replacement as Bush's running mate, when the original candidate managed to say "Thy Kingdom Cunt" at a prayer breakfast. — Garth Ennis

We ain't got time for a goddamn poetry recital. An' your juices feel like rain on the inferno? What the fuck is that, is that from the letter you wrote to penthouse? — Garth Ennis

Preacher: "This is the word of God!"
Constantine: "The edited word of God — Garth Ennis

I tend to forget what I'm doing will ever be read while I'm writing it, and just get on with the task at hand. — Garth Ennis

The comics I read as a kid were much more influenced by TV and movies. Encountering superheroes as an adult without that kind of childhood sentimentality, it just doesn't allow you, or in my case at least, it wouldn't let me take the characters seriously. — Garth Ennis

I get down on my knees every mornin' an' give eternal thanks for the existence of girls in a otherwise pointless universe. — Garth Ennis

Larger than life character; a couple of hundred years ago he would have been a pirate. "When in evil company, try to blend in" - that was one of his. — Garth Ennis

The urge to fight, to maul, to murder: it is the greatest cancer that afflicts mankind. It obliterates the body of the victim, and the spirit of the the one who strikes the blow. I have seen it... — Garth Ennis

You know you can be a real bitch sometimes."

"I can be a perfect cunt. — Garth Ennis

Why is it the greatest champions of the white race always turn out to be the worst examples of it? You! Where the fuck is your chin? — Garth Ennis

With a mini series you can give the story a proper sense of pacing, a proper sense of closure. — Garth Ennis

There'd be no point trynna blackmail a bloke everyone already knows is a cunt, would there? — Garth Ennis

What happens when your world ends? Your lover steals your heart ... and your father casts you out ... and you fall. — Garth Ennis

..."ya gotta be one of the good guys...'cause there's too many of the bad. — Garth Ennis

I've seen a fair bit of the States and the rest of the world, and I'm convinced that there's nowhere I'd be happier, there's nowhere I'm missing out on because I'm in N.Y. — Garth Ennis

God: But it is my creation...!

The Saint of Killers: It's outgrown you. — Garth Ennis

It doesn't matter who you are,or how good you got things. Sooner or later,shit goes wrong for everybody. Sooner or later,there comes a time when all you want to do is shout Fuck you to the world. — Garth Ennis

All right, funny man. Some of the shite I've seen in the last couple o' years makes AIDS monkeys sound downright sensible. — Garth Ennis

You work for the devil, you better be ready to die for him. — Garth Ennis

As the scripts come in they are sent to the artists, and the artists are either very busy, or ready to start. — Garth Ennis

I suppose that Heartland, Unknown Soldier and Pride and Joy represent not a quieter side but more of a serious side to my work, something I've been getting into recently. — Garth Ennis

If you look at Marvel Comics, there are very few Marvel characters I would like to write. — Garth Ennis

You know, I think I did originally have some sort of idea of maybe a Where Eagles Dare kind of mission against impossible odds, but it really sort of died before I had a chance to really go anywhere with it, and then just doing the book was out of the question. — Garth Ennis