Kurt Busiek Quotes & Sayings

And is that why we do what we do? For public approval, for fame? Do we help people because they will be appropriately grateful--or merely because they need help? — Kurt Busiek

That's the way it happens - some characters you set out to use, some are happy accidents. As long as it works, it doesn't really matter how you got them. — Kurt Busiek

Maybe I had a 'secret identity,' but then when you think about it, don't we all? A part of ourselves very few people ever get to see. The part we think of as 'me.' The part that deals with the big stuff. Makes the real choices. The part everything else is a reflection of. — Kurt Busiek

When I realized that people actually wrote comics, that it was a job people could do, I thought, 'Gee, these things are only 17 pages long! I could probably finish one of those and find out whether I suck before I've spent five years of my life on it.' In stumbling into comics that way, I discovered that I loved the form. — Kurt Busiek

Dracula, if he could see modern corporations, wouldn't like them much. He took care of his people, at least as he saw it. They had very little freedom, but they had a protector. — Kurt Busiek

What really matters is not how well a character fits a definition, but how strongly he or she resonates. Characters with strong, resonant ideas at their core will have more of an impact on the cultural consciousness than a character who's just an empty collection of attributes. — Kurt Busiek

You've got to leave the reader with more than just a name and a costume - they need to know who the character is, what they're like, what kind of attitude they have, what sort of role they play. — Kurt Busiek

And I saw in them a hope...A hope that it was possible to have secrets, to mask one's true nature...and yet still to walk among men. — Kurt Busiek

I could name you a dozen superheroes whose powers I'd like to have. But if I could have any power in the world, it would be the power to read or watch a creative work and absorb the technical skill of the people who made it. Because then I could have even more fun writing. That's my core identity. I'm a writer. I just love telling stories. — Kurt Busiek

Marvel's got a crowded universe, and there are already so many characters hogging the spotlight that it's hard to break through that. First off, whatever character you're creating, odds are, there's already someone similar in one way or another. — Kurt Busiek

I love creator-owned comics. Most of my favorite books these days are creator-owned, from stuff DC publishes, like 'Fables,' to books like 'Saga,' 'Fatale,' 'Hellboy,' and 'Courtney Crumrin.' — Kurt Busiek

I wanted to be a writer, but the idea of writing novels or movies seemed really intimidating. I never got more than a few pages into one. — Kurt Busiek

The most fascinating powers don't mean a thing if the guy's poorly motivated or dull, and the most generic powers won't hurt a well-motivated character. Personality and motivation are what make Magneto, Magneto and not Cosmic Boy. The powers work for him, but it's his motivation that makes him the character he is. — Kurt Busiek

I wrote 'Marvels,' which was about a guy who had two daughters, and I wrote 'Astro City Volume 2 #1,' which was about a guy who had two daughters. In both cases, about a year and a half or two years apart. And then after that, I had two daughters, about a year and a half or two years apart. — Kurt Busiek

It strikes me that the only reason to take apart a pocket watch, or a car engine, aside from the simple delight of disassembly, is to find out how it works. To understand it, so you can put it back together again better than before, or build a new one that goes beyond what the old one could do. We've been taking apart the superhero for ten years or more; it's time to put it back together and wind it up, time to take it out on the road and floor it, see what it'll do. — Kurt Busiek

He was saving innocents and serving truth. And in the final judgement, what is more important? The burdens we bear -- or the way we bear them? — Kurt Busiek

The reason I quit being a sales manager over twenty years now is because I hate elevator pitches. I want to write stories and show people what's in them when they read them, not tell them all about it ahead of time. — Kurt Busiek

I created lots of characters in high school and college, and the first character I created in pro comics was Liana, Green Lantern of M'Elu, for a backup story in 'Green Lantern #162,' my first professional sale. — Kurt Busiek

Between 'Avengers,' 'JLA/Avengers,' and 'Trinity,' I've gotten down and dirty in the big universes and had a hell of a time playing in those sandboxes. — Kurt Busiek

Theme is great for people who like to approach stories that way, but it's an organizing principle that helps us write a story that has some weight; it's not something that all readers have to care about. — Kurt Busiek

I tend to think that the best face of humanity is that we learn. We explore, we study, we think. — Kurt Busiek

At one point, I worked up a list of five requirements for a superhero: superpowers, a costume, a code name, a mission, and a milieu. If the character had three out of the five, they were a superhero. But that's just my definition. — Kurt Busiek

Mainly, what I like to do is keep things varied and not get in a rut, not tell the same stories over and over. — Kurt Busiek

When you have a novel set in a fictional history, you still should get your history right. — Kurt Busiek

I like superheroes. I like the drama of it, the stirring, larger-than-life aspect. — Kurt Busiek

I don't view Twitter as a promotional tool but as a really, really, really cool cocktail party. — Kurt Busiek