Paul Dini

“If you let tragedies stop you along the way, then you're never going to grow as a person.”

“I looked at comics like a buffet table, where you take a little bit of something and leave the other stuff behind.”

“Characters do change over time; there are surprises, role reversals, and things like that.”

“Batman is pretty much a self-trained guy. I think it would be fun to do a character like Superman or Captain Marvel or maybe Green Lantern, somebody who's got a completely different resource for fighting crime and fighting villains.”

“There's something very, very liberating about Harley Quinn. Much more so than a character like Catwoman or Poison Ivy. Those are great characters. But then again, those characters are more of the femme fatale and the temptress roles.”

“I'm not saying I talk to cartoon characters all the time, but the characters are very real to me. In a very non-insane way.”

“What makes Batman and what makes other superheroes work is the myth that when life is at its lowest, and when you need a hero, a hero swings down and helps you.”

“You have to be kind to yourself to survive in the world.”

“I was working in cartoons. I could go to Comic-Con, buy the Hal Jordan ring, I could buy animation cels, but at the end of the day, I come back to an empty apartment. I had a life that was only around me, and when I was broken, my world was broken.”

“We're all painfully aware of how suddenly violence can occur, how crippling it is, and how survivors have to find a way back from that.”

“As much as I liked the build-up to Christmas, the week after always socked me with the blues.”

“It's a lot of fun to identify with a character who lives by their own rules.”

“As much as I love elements of Spider-Man's past, I don't really want to go back in and retell the Gwen Stacy and Green Goblin story in animation just so I can do my take on it. I don't want to redo the first 'Spider Slayer' story.”

“A lot of times, female characters - particularly the villains - come off as very one-dimensional. They get the short shrift in that they're only given the snappy comeback, or they're relegated to a very stereotypical role. I want to know what's driving them - that's what's really interesting.”

“If 'Jingle Belle' harkens back to anything, it's sort of the Harvey Comics. Not really 'Archie,' but more of a teenage version of what Harvey Comics would have become, with the type of fantasy wonderland of her and her various friends.”

“The Joker is a tremendous vehicle for talented actors. Cesar Romero's was a bubbly, lunatic criminal. Nicholson did him as a vain, preening manipulator. Heath's performance of the Joker was remarkable, too. His was a low-simmering crazy street clown. Joker can be played all these ways, and they're all true.”

“With 'Tower Prep,' Cartoon Network wanted to go into a new area where no other kids' programming was going. There were a lot of kids' sitcoms on the air, but they wanted to really go with more of like an adventure/drama feel.”

“As a writer, every time I create a character, I try to go for something to captivate the audience in some way. It's also an extension of how the audience would like to see themselves.”

“I've always felt in my own small, little way that if I could just write a story where it works out well, where the scales of justice are balanced, then that's something that I do really love to see in the world.”

“To overcome any form of adversity, to not give up, to not give up on yourself, your dreams, to not sequester yourself away from people - that's the most important thing to do with your life.”