Rucka Quotes & Sayings

Being cursed with human hands is no excuse for clumsiness! — Greg Rucka

DC are playing catch up with Marvel because of things like 'The Avengers' breaking six hundred million domestic. — Greg Rucka

Good fiction can both entertain and light up those dark corners where nice people don't want to go. — Greg Rucka

I think that Batman loses his efficacy and mythology if he's got too many people around him. That's what the Justice League is for, you know what I mean? — Greg Rucka

I think you can't repeat beats. If you're doing something in one book, you can't do the exact same thing in another book. — Greg Rucka

A character wandering around asking, 'Who am I?' isn't, in and of itself, a story I'm interested in telling. — Greg Rucka

A real stormtrooper is the extension of the First Order, of Supreme Leader Snoke's will, nothing less. — Greg Rucka

I like the 'Keystone Kops' storyline. It didn't actually go quite the way I wanted to, but it was another great way to show how different life was in these two different corners of the DCU, being on the ground in these different areas. — Greg Rucka

I'm a Caucasian American Jew. These are all things that make up who I am. — Greg Rucka

The female experience is different from that of the male, and if, as a male writer, you cannot accept that basic premise, then you will never, ever, be able to write women well. — Greg Rucka

In that moment he understood it had never been a game. He understood that he was never going to be one of them. — Greg Rucka

I think Batman has the Wolverine problem. I think he's overexposed. — Greg Rucka

I met one of my best resources because I cold-called the local FBI office one day early in my career with questions. The agent who took the call knew someone who knew someone who was ex-Army, trained in personal protection. The resulting introduction was one of the best, most enduring friendships I've ever enjoyed. — Greg Rucka

Knife fights are something that happen between the Sharks and the Jets, that's it. Everywhere else, it's not a fight, it's just someone trying to goddam kill you. — Greg Rucka

We forget when we're all grown up. 16 was a long time ago. It's hard to remember how freakin' difficult it is as 16! Life is not easy, and you're trying to figure stuff out. — Greg Rucka

So he was FN-2187, well on his way to becoming the ideal First Order stormtrooper. That was what everyone thought, at least. Except FN-2187 himself. — Greg Rucka

Chace went to the bar to order the first round, two lagers. The barman was old, and old-fashioned, and when he served her one pine, presumably for Wallace, and a half, presumably for her, she sent the half back.
"No, another pint, if you please."
The barman's eyes turned critical. "Not terribly ladylike."
"I'm a terrible lady. — Greg Rucka

You know how a nonlethal weapon is supposed to work? A nonlethal weapon works on the basis of three things: It needs to deter, and that's normally done through pain, and that pain creates a byproduct, which is fear. — Greg Rucka

I love doing research. It's like cheating, but with permission. — Greg Rucka

I've always had a thing for theme parks and their less-glorious cousins, amusement parks, the carnival midway, and others of such ilk. — Greg Rucka

Deadshot you're not. — Greg Rucka

Somebody's got to win this war, right? — Greg Rucka

When we're 16, we have lots of heavy thoughts. And these are the heavy thoughts, where, when we're in our 30s, we look at 16-year olds and sort of scorn it. — Greg Rucka

You have to accept that Batman is a fact of life in Gotham City, and on top of that, you have to accept that somehow this city manages to function with a police force that's 90% corrupt. — Greg Rucka

A fantastic, gleeful, chrome-plated-slick debut of a novel. In Jonathan Chase, Markham has created the perfect cliche-shattering super spy while honoring the progenitors. Dangerously sharp, and genuinely fun-and very, very, very smart. I want more books like this. I want more books from the mind of Mr. Markham! — Greg Rucka

I tend to see - socially, I don't tend to be myself in a male role. I don't know any other way to put it. — Greg Rucka

I love 'The Omen,' just as a piece of plotting. — Greg Rucka

What is it you do for your family? Aside from trying to put it in your sister, I mean? — Greg Rucka

There is a sequence in my 'Detective Comics' run where you can't find consecutive issues by the same artist. That's intentional. That was done on purpose. — Greg Rucka

You cannot lose what is inside you," Chirrut said. "You can only misplace it. The task, then, is to find it again. — Greg Rucka

No, the Empire needed to be fought. It had to be resisted. — Greg Rucka

'Alpha' is a very fast-moving book. It doesn't lend itself to laborious introspection and the navel-gazing that some stories can fall prey to. — Greg Rucka

I just know that if you make a Superman movie you can't take kids to, you've done something wrong. — Greg Rucka

The need to do what's right, and maybe find a little adventure along the way." Poe shifted in his seat. "You remind me of my brother," Leia said softly. "Fly like him, too, apparently." Poe looked at her, surprised and flattered at once. — Greg Rucka

Emotional honesty transcends reality; it's what allows disbelief to be suspended and yet what makes a story stay true. — Greg Rucka

My college senior thesis was going to be on the American private investigator. — Greg Rucka

Your ability to name every single variation of Kryptonite and every first issue in which it appears is a great pop quiz skill, but is not a great writing skill, all right? So just because you can do that doesn't mean you know how to write. — Greg Rucka

Every writer has characters that they become attached to and that they feel very strongly about. — Greg Rucka

For those he has ignored, he allows them this. He allows them God, their only ally. Places to worship, but no one to teach. — Greg Rucka

THE WOOKIEE SIGHED, a low rumble, and gazed at the medal in his palm. On the humans it looked substantial and solid, fit to be worn around the neck. In his hand the scale was altered, and if he brought his fingers together he could conceal it entirely. A pretty thing, hastily engraved in a stylized flower meant perhaps to recall the emblem of the Republic. At its heart a rising sun, halfway above the horizon, both symbolized the dawn of a new hope in the wake of this victory over the Galactic Empire and recalled the Death Star's destruction. — Greg Rucka

What he knew was what he had been taught, and what he had been taught was simple: the First Order stood against the deprivations of the Republic. The First Order brought law to a lawless galaxy. — Greg Rucka

There was a time in my career when my hackles would really get raised if someone came in and said, 'We need you to do this or that.' But the fact of the matter is, you're working in a shared universe, and all elements of the universe are, ideally, going to mesh and work together. That's my goal. I want to be on the team. — Greg Rucka

It was, strangely, like coming home, as if this was the place Poe had meant to be all along. — Greg Rucka

Every writer is going to end up drawing from their own experiences in one way or another. — Greg Rucka

We have our mission and we are going to complete it. So grab your straws and suck it the fuck up. — Greg Rucka

For every person who passes on the opportunity to write Spider-Man or Superman, I guarantee there are 5000 hungry writers who would give their eye-teeth to do it. But just because they want to do it, it doesn't mean they are capable of doing it. — Greg Rucka

There are a lot of people in the medium who came and got into the industry and work in the industry, and these are people who were raised on comics and loved comics. Comics are their religion. To such an extent, that they don't know anything else. — Greg Rucka

The first story I can remember writing, that I truly set down on paper, was a Christmas story that I wrote when I was ten years old. — Greg Rucka

Look, I like gritty. I write gritty. There is a time and a place for gritty. I'll take my Batman gritty, thank you, and I will acknowledge that such a portrayal means that my 11-year-old has to wait before he sees The Dark Knight. But if Hollywood turns out a Superman movie that I can't take him to? They've done something wrong. — Greg Rucka

If someone arrives, fully functional yet a tabula rasa, how does their environment influence, educate, even mold them? And if that is a nurture question, then where does that character's nature fit in? How does that manifest? — Greg Rucka

I'm hoping Lor San Tekka knows where to find my brother, Poe. And Luke Skywalker may be the only hope we have left. — Greg Rucka

There are so many great characters because one of the things that makes Batman fantastic is that Batman is tragic. I've said this elsewhere; I've said it over and over again, but the beauty of the character is that he's a Don Quixote. — Greg Rucka

I come from a prose background. I come from short story background, and that led me into novels. — Greg Rucka

For the contingent out there who sneer at heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman and Captain America, those icons who still, at their core, represent selfless sacrifice for the greater good, and who justify their contempt by saying, oh, it's so unrealistic, no one would ever be so noble ... grow up. Seriously. Cynicism is not maturity, do not mistake the one for the other. If you truly cannot accept a story where someone does the right thing because it's the right thing to do, that says far more about who you are than these characters. — Greg Rucka

In front of the officers, in front of Captain Phasma especially, they always used their appropriate designations, — Greg Rucka

Some of the best moments I've ever written have come about because someone, somewhere, blew my preconceptions out of the water and dropped a detail in passing that took the work in an entirely new, entirely unexpected, direction. — Greg Rucka

So when she wasn't sleeping or just sitting and listening to the storm or tinkering at her workbench, she flew. — Greg Rucka

I read a lot of science fiction, but I also mixed it up with a lot of other genres: crime, literary fiction, as well as nonfiction. Author-wise, I'm a fan of Stephen King, Lauren Beukes, Robert McCammon, Raymond Chandler, Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker and Gail Simone, among many others. — Adam Christopher

One did not need to believe in the Force to know right from wrong. — Greg Rucka

Everyone uses everyone, Tee. Way of the world, isn't it? — Greg Rucka

Speaking as a father, there is no rulebook, and you don't know how to do it. You just do the best you can. — Greg Rucka

I can whitewash your little trip out to OR-Kappa-2722 for you. I can sweep it under the rug if you like. You can go back to leading Rapier Squadron and having your hands tied by Command, by Major Deso, by politicians who don't recognize what's happening right before their eyes. I can make it all go away, Poe." She leaned forward. "Or you can join the Resistance and help us stop the First Order before it's too late." "Where do I sign up?" Poe asked. — Greg Rucka

If Portland can truly have a true comics show that doesn't become a media show but retains its focus on comics, I think it's going to serve the city well. If this becomes a big show, it's going to bring in a lot of money for the city. — Greg Rucka

For the light to exist, there must be the dark. For the Force, there must be balance. — Greg Rucka

I do crazy amounts of research. I want this stuff to 'work,' so to speak. I need to be, at least to me, believable - because if I feel - if I cannot invest some element of verisimilitude, the reader is absolutely not going to buy in. — Greg Rucka

To me, the joy you're going to get in a 'Punisher' story is watching him punish incredibly wicked people. Now, if you can add to that an emotional content, wonderful. — Greg Rucka

Comics don't work without the visuals, obviously. — Greg Rucka

When I was in third grade, I would run home - literally run home from school - and if I could make it in time, I could get home and the put the TV on in time to catch the answering machine message at the start of 'The Rockford Files.' — Greg Rucka

We seek to craft characters who inspire empathy: characters our audience will care for and, as a result, will care about what happens to them and thus will share the journey we have charted. A story, after all, is the character's journey. — Greg Rucka

She listened intently, her chin in her hand, her elbow on her knee. Poe couldn't remember ever having felt so heard by anyone in all his life. — Greg Rucka

It was responsible for the interlopers who plagued their lands. It — Greg Rucka

In their armor they were all the same, and that was the point, he understood. But he took pleasure in the moments when he could see their variety and diversity - those moments when he could glimpse the people beneath the armor and see them as more than just faceless, nameless soldiers identified by letters and numbers and nothing more. — Greg Rucka

The stories that are out and the things that have been published are a sample of my interests. There are genres and sub-genres that I haven't waded into but have wanted to, or have waded into in other places but never actually written. — Greg Rucka

I love liminal characters. I love these characters that are outside and enter and consequently are perpetually outsiders, and who hold themselves to a higher standard. — Greg Rucka

Every character needs an adversary - one who is both challenging and a contrast for the hero. The best adversaries reveal something about the character they're contrasting. — Greg Rucka

I think there are certain questions that get asked in comics over and over again, and people want definitive answers, but I feel like there shouldn't be definitive answers. — Greg Rucka

The goal with 'Alpha' was to run towards the cliches and then to break through them, and that doesn't change depending on the medium. — Greg Rucka

The pistol had been one hell of a find, because it hadn't quite been what she'd thought it was at first blush. Not simply the S&W Mk 39, but rather a modified version of the same, the Mk 22 Mod 0, also called the "hush puppy". It was Vietnam-era, not the most reliable gun in the world, but wonderfully silent, not only equipped with a silencer to eliminate the sound of gunfire, but also with a slide lock, to keep the actual mechanical operation of the gun quiet as well. She'd test-fired the gun at the market before purchasing, and been stunned that it still worked. The Uzbek vendor had offered to sell it to her cheap.
"It's too quiet," he'd explained. "No one wants it."
Chace shut her eyes, half smiling at the memory. — Greg Rucka

She released his hand and sat back. That air of sadness had descended on her once more. His father had carried a similar melancholy after his mother had passed; Poe would see it descend on him like a shadow, settle over his shoulders like a blanket made of warmth and memory and longing and loss. Leia wore something made of the same material, and not for the first time Poe wondered how she had come by it and, perhaps more importantly, who had given it to her. — Greg Rucka

In darkness I follow the light and find my way to the beginning again, and again, and again. — Greg Rucka

Their position at the Republic base in Mirrin Prime was marked by a gently pulsing gold dot — Greg Rucka

When there's a clear vision, and you've got the creative teams working toward that goal, each on their own, it can then come together quite elegantly at the endpoint. — Greg Rucka

Bell holsters his pistol as Chain drops to one knee, begins searching bodies and bags. Lilac is watching him warily, the boy and girl clinging to her. "You with me? Lilac? Are you with me?"
Lilac nods, hesitantly at first, then again, with resolve, and maybe it's calling her by her character name that does it, but she takes a breath, stands a little straighter. She is Lilac the meerkat, the heart of the Flower Sisters. Fierce and loyal, yet kind at heart, and she will do what must be done. — Greg Rucka

The FN P-35 was known more commonly as the Browning Hi-Power, a popular enough firearm to those who used it, and in and of itself, nothing more needed to be noted. Except the fact that the Browning was the sidearm of choice for the Special Air Service, and while the gun itself was produced by Fabrique Nationale, a Belgian concern, and named after an American gunmaker--John M. Browning--there were many who thought of the weapon as Very British Indeed. — Greg Rucka

I am the product of Denny O'Neil in many ways, I carry forth a lot of what Denny instilled in me. — Greg Rucka

Rapier Squadron was transferred from Mirrin Prime and redeployed aboard a refitted Mon Calamari cruiser called Echo of Hope. — Greg Rucka

For me, plot always comes out of character, so I had to be sure of my characters. — Greg Rucka

She'd jury-rigged a computer using pieces scavenged from several crashed fighters over the years, including a cracked but still-usable display from an old BTL-A4 Y-wing. There were no radio communications to speak of - no way to transmit or receive and, frankly, nobody she wanted to talk to anyway. On the wreckage of a Zephra-series hauler, though, she'd once found a stash of data chips, and after painstakingly going through each and every one of them, she'd discovered three with their programs intact; one of them, to her delight, had been a flight simulator. — Greg Rucka

You get them to the main gate, don't stop until you're outside," Bell tells her, then turns, directing his words at the others. "You understand? All of you, follow Lilac. Follow Lilac. Don't stop. Run."
"Lily runs," the girl says softly. "Lilac dances."
"Not today," Lilac says. "Today, we run so fast that Lily won't believe it when we tell her. Right?"
The girl nods, wide-eyed. — Greg Rucka

Comics fans want new stuff that looks exactly like the old stuff. It is hard for the publishers, and even the audience, to change something. — Greg Rucka

Fear is one of the elements of nonlethal weaponry. You're going to get hurt, and you don't want to get hurt. Pepper spray hurts. You don't want to be sprayed. That's why it's a useful deterrent as a nonlethal weapon - I'm not advocating spraying people randomly. — Greg Rucka

We wanted to talk about death in the DC Universe, and how some people go to get a pass and come back, and some people didn't. That opened up a whole other topic about legacy. We wanted to talk about what was required to be a hero, what were the elements of true heroism? — Greg Rucka

She would give him one more chance, Phasma decided. One last chance for FN-2187 to decide his fate. — Greg Rucka

POE DAMERON'S first ship was his mother's RZ-1 A-wing. — Greg Rucka

I am one with the Force," he said to himself and to the universe at once. — Greg Rucka

Punisher is scary; he should be scary. — Greg Rucka

I think if you look back at some of the stuff that we broadly label as the crime 'ouvre,' there are certainly elements of the supernatural at work. — Greg Rucka

The Force is with me, and I am one with the Force," Chirrut told Althin. "And I fear nothing, for all is as the Force wills it. — Greg Rucka

It's a big galaxy. The First Order is a remnant born of a war thirty years gone. Yes, they persist, yes, they continue, but by all accounts they do so barely. They are, at best, an ill-organized, poorly equipped, and badly funded group of loyalists who use propaganda and fear to inflate their strength and their importance. — Greg Rucka

....but you're wrong" He said. "Life is about your family and the people that love you. Life is about your experiences. It's about LIVING and it's about the people that you share it with. The rest of it, the rest of them? They are chaff — Greg Rucka