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

Boy, if Garth Ennis had created a religion, I would sure like to be a part of that. It just makes sense, the way he tackles things in it. It's really heavy stuff and it's incredibly well written. — James Marsden

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

We always spend more time on the throwing events and a little bit more on the long jump. They're my weaker events - they don't come as naturally to me as running and jumping. I like the hurdles and the high-jump, I'm a springy, speedy athlete so those suit me. — Jessica Ennis

I want to experience that massive adrenalin rush when you step into a new stadium, all the more so when that Olympic Stadium is packed full of people waving British flags. — Jessica 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

I learned what I need to do in the long jump, what I needed to do in the javelin and I've been able to rectify those events. It's been a bit of a learning curve, which is good. — Jessica Ennis

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

I'm proud of the way I've dealt with setbacks. It's hard when you feel down and you think, 'Why is the world doing this to me?' But you have to pick yourself up again. That's what makes you a better athlete. — Jessica Ennis

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

People who aren't perhaps that into sport are going to be following me and wanting to be part of the Olympics. That definitely does bring added pressure but as an athlete the Olympics are the ultimate competition. — Jessica Ennis

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

People think the gold medal is yours and they say you're going to win - but they have no idea how hard it is. People aren't doing it negatively - they're mostly lovely and they really do want you to win - but they don't understand the difficulty and intensity of competition. — Jessica Ennis

Is there a support group for people who didn't like 'Brokeback Mountain'? We must, if the rave reviews and the newspaper reports are to be believed, be a very tiny - not to mention vulnerable - minority. Am I dead inside because I didn't experience the torrent of emotions I've been reading about? Am I as emotionally crippled as Ennis because I didn't blub and hug after sitting through this 'visceral' movie, but instead wanted to go and 'help with the roundup'? — Mark Simpson

On a scale of one to 10, I'd rate my body confidence as a good seven. Everyone has their hang-ups, but I see my body as a training tool and I feel good about it. — Jessica Ennis

I have since been awarded the freedom of the City. I am going to have to find out what that entitles me to, but I believe I might be able to drive sheep through the city centre. — Jessica Ennis

This explained to me
and I suppose, forgave me
my inability to see the face of this man, because whoever must deceive us in order to live will by necessity far exceed the skill of ordinary men, who are as much tempted by the desire to be honest as they are plagued by guilt and shame when they have broken faith. — Michael 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

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

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

Fuck with the bull, you get the horns. — 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

I carry a golf ball to put under my feet when they get tight, and a Thera-Band for general stretching. — Jessica 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

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

Our Heavenly Father - you established the criteria for hospitality in your Holy Word and then provided the strength to apply it to daily living. Eternity will not be long enough for us to express our love and gratitude to you! — Pat Ennis

Ennis was back on his feet and somehow, as a coat hanger is straightened to open a locked car and then bent again to its original shape, they torqued things almost to where they had been, for what they'd said was no news. Nothing ended, nothing began, nothing resolved. — Annie Proulx

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

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

After these readings I confirmed my suspicions and feelings on that day outside Ennis courthouse that not only was Eamonn De Valera complicit in the assassination of Michael Collins, but he was also responsible for ensuring that the partition of Ireland stayed in place and that Ireland was always secretly under the control of British political interest. — A. Antares

I am actually talking about possibly adapting 'The Boys,' by Garth Ennis, which would not be a comedy, but an action movie with comedy elements to it. — Adam McKay

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

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

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

Again the ranch is on the market and they've shipped out the last of the horses, paid everybody off the day before, the owner saying, 'Give them to the real estate shark, I'm out a here," dropping the keys in Ennis's hand. He might have to stay with his married daughter until he picks up another job, yet he is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream. — Annie Proulx

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

I was around 15 when I first wanted to compete in an Olympics. I even remember the first time I got to wear a GB kit as a junior. I've even kept it. It's in my mum's loft somewhere, probably gone mouldy by now. — Jessica Ennis

I don't look at Twitter between events because it's a distraction but I will ring my fiance and parents to let them know how it's going. — Jessica Ennis

After my first day of competition I put on compression socks. They help me recover for the next day. — Jessica Ennis

I just love thinking about what makes people tick — Jessica Ennis

I no longer believed that Valentino would continue to build anything at all. Instead, he would merely leave behind the empire of hope that he had constructed in each of our minds. Leonardo's empire boasted cities more perfect than Plato or Augustine could have imagined. My empire of hope was an Italy defended by citizen soldiers rather than mercenary thugs, free of tyranny and foreign armies, with justice for all regardless of rank or wealth. But I feared I had come to Cesenatico only to wander among its ruins. — Michael 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

Everyone has to try to give back as much as possible because I think in all sports it helps kids to have role models or people to look up to. Someone like Jess Ennis, I know a lot of young girls have started to get into athletics stuff because of her, because of her success. — Andy Murray

The first time I opened one I felt indecent. I love the feel of a book. I love the touch and smell and sound of the pages. I love the handling. A book is a sensual thing. You sit curled in a chair with it or like me you take it to bed and it's, well, enveloping. Weird I am. I know. What the Hell? as Bobby Bowe says to everything. You either get it or you don't. When my father first took me to Ennis Library I went down among the shelves and felt company, not only the company of the writers, but the readers too, because they had lifted and opened and read these books. The books were worn in a way they can only get worn by hands and eyes and minds; these were the literal original Facebooks, the books where faces had been, and I just loved it, the whole strange sense of being aboard a readership. — Niall Williams

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

There was a massive poster of me down my road, right outside the chip shop. I was about to go in, but then I saw it and changed my mind. Me coming out with a bag of chips, while I'm up there doing crunches on the poster ... well, it would not look good. — Jessica 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

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

It's quite funny in that I once won Rear of the Year at my school! I was about 17 in the sixth form and we used to have an end of year celebration and give out different awards. I even got a little trophy! — Jessica 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

I love getting dressed up for red carpet events and having my hair and makeup done professionally - that definitely helps with nerves of going down the red carpet. — Jessica Ennis

Nevertheless I would be a hypocrite not to anticipate that the good intentions I brought to The Prince will also be the root of some other man's evil, if only because the way to the house of the Devil is the same for the good man and the bad - and the journey just as necessary for them both. The times change, but the nature of men does not. — Michael Ennis

Dude, are you like English or something--?

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

I did not have an answer for the maestro that day. Instead my answer has been the labor of my life, principally my Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy but also my little Prince. Despite what so many say, I did not embark upon this voyage to show men how evil can triumph, but to demonstrate that evil surely will triumph if good men do not strive to learn well its lessons. And now that my usefulness, if not my life itself, has ended, I can say before God and man that I have met the challenge of the great maestro of revered memory issued on the road to Cesenatico. For in my life's work, I crossed the unknown sea and charted a route for all men to follow, should they wish to live in peace and security. — Michael 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

I wasn't the kind of kid who would get A's without even trying. I had to work to get good grades, but I was very organised about it because I always wanted to do well at everything I did. I'm very competitive. — Jessica 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

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

Late in the afternoon, thunder growling, that same old green pickup rolled in and he saw Jack get out of the truck, beat up Resistol tilted back. A hot jolt scalded Ennis and he was out on the landing pulling the door closed behind him. Jack took the stairs two and two. They seized each other by the shoulders, hugged mightily, squeezing the breath out of each other, saying, son of a bitch, son of a bitch, then, and easily as the right key turns the lock tumblers, their mouths came together, and hard, Jack's big teeth bringing blood, his hat falling to the floor, stubble rasping, wet saliva welling, and the door opening and Alma looking out for a few seconds at Ennis's straining shoulders and shutting the door again and still they clinched, pressing chest and groin and thigh and leg together, treading on each other's toes until they pulled apart to breathe and Ennis, not big on endearments, said what he said to his horses and his daughters, little darlin. — Annie Proulx

I'm one of those gay people who's constantly reminded of how fortunate I am to live now and not to be Ennis and Jack [from Brokeback Mountain] or whatever - not that I'd mind being Ennis for half an hour. But it's been so much worse recently. It still is terrible. In Iran, they're hanging gay teenagers. I'm grateful for how far the United States, even with its crazy Christians, has come on a lot of issues. And the fact that I get called a faggot occasionally by a crack addict, while annoying, certainly isn't a lobotomy and prison. — Dan Savage

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

And they shook hands, hit each other on the
shoulder, then there was forty feet of distance between them and
nothing to do but drive away in opposite directions. Within a mile
Ennis felt like someone was pulling his guts out hand over hand a
yard at a time. He stopped at the side of the road and, in the whirling
new snow, tried to puke but nothing came up. He felt about as bad as
he ever had and it took a long time for the feeling to wear off. — Annie Proulx

Things have changed so much, with Facebook and Twitter. Everyone is so much more accessible these days: no British athlete has ever experienced what we are experiencing now. It's such a unique situation with the home Olympics. — Jessica Ennis

As it did go. They never talked about the sex, let it happen, at first only in the tent at night, then in the full daylight with the hot sun striking down, and at evening in the fire glow, quick, rough, laughing and snorting, no lack of noises, but saying not a goddamn word except once Ennis said, "I'm not no queer," and Jack jumped in with "Me neither. A one-shot thing. Nobody's business but ours. — Annie Proulx

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

My idea of beauty is somebody that doesn't have to try too much, someone who is effortless and fresh. — Jessica Ennis

Jack, in his dark camp, saw Ennis as night fire, a red spark on the huge black mass of mountain. — Annie Proulx

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

When my father first took me to Ennis Library I went down among the shelves and felt company, not only the company of writers, but the readers too, because they had lifted and opened and read these books. The books were worn in a way they can only get worn by hands and eyes and minds — Niall Williams

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

You know you can be a real bitch sometimes."

"I can be a perfect cunt. — 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

You got no fuckin idea how bad it gets. I'm not you. I can't make it on a couple a high-altitude fucks once or twice a year. You're too much for me, Ennis, you son of a whoreson bitch. I wish I knew how to quit you. — Annie Proulx

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

God: But it is my creation...!

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

Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see nor feel that it was Jack he held. — Annie Proulx

She, the first-born daughter of water, faced
darkness and smiled. Took mystery as her
lover and raised light as her child. Man that
shit was wild. You should have seen how
they ran. She woke up in an alley with a gun
in her hand. Tupac in lotus form, Ennis' blood
on his hands. — Saul Williams

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

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

I don't want to think of life after competing. But if I were to do anything else I'd go down the psychology route. That's what interests me. — Jessica Ennis

Training is full-on. Some days I really don't want to get out of bed and hit that track again. Sunday and Monday morning sessions are always horrible. But who really looks forward to going to work on a Monday morning? — Jessica 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

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