Frank Miller

Frank Miller: (On doing a sequel to "Dark Knight Returns") It's really simple. I had a story. Also, I've always loved the superhero stuff-I just didn't think it was the only thing comic books should be doing-and I just really got the itch. Fifteen years away from it has given me a much different perspective. I'm much more able to approach it like I'm 7 years old than I used to be able to.

Frank Miller: Mostly I hear people say, 'Why did we attack Iraq?' for instance. Well, we're taking on an idea. Nobody questions why we, after Pearl Harbor, attacked Nazi Germany. It was because we were taking on a form of global fascism, we're doing the same thing now.

Frank Miller: You can't have virtue without sin. What I'm after is having my characters' virtues defined by how they operate in a very sinful environment. That's how you test people.

Frank Miller: (about his inspirations) I'm a comic book artist. So I think too myself, what do I like to draw? I like to draw hot chicks, fast cars and cool guys in trench coat. So that's what I write about.

Frank Miller: I figured Daredevil must be Catholic because only a Catholic could be both an attorney and a vigilante.

Frank Miller: (on "Batman Begins") I totally thought they did a damned good job. It was the first 'Batman' movie I've genuinely liked. I sat there, I watched it, and I came out of there going, 'Well done, man.' Sure, they used my stuff - they used everybody's stuff, but they used my stuff a lot - but they did it well, and that's all I care about. It was Batman. What I mean by that is, I thought the character was true. You understand, when I work on a character, I have a very, very hard time seeing anybody else's interpretation. I get very possessive. But when I went out to see this thing, I said, 'This is a pretty cool Batman.' I wasn't sitting there going, 'This is a merchandising tool.' I felt like it really had heart and substance, and Christian Bale with no doubt performed the best Batman I have ever seen.

Frank Miller: Think of me as the weathered sheriff coming back into Dodge 'cause the youngsters are shooting up the church and scaring the horses and not doing right by the women.

Frank Miller: I realized that I was about to turn 30, and Batman was permanently 29. And I was going to be damned if I was older than Batman.

Frank Miller: The day you write to please everyone you no longer are in journalism. You are in show business.

Frank Miller: My feeling is that the hero has now been defined by phrases like the odious one that we were all raised with - crimes does not pay. Of course it pays, you schmuck. That's not why we don't do it. We don't do it because it is wrong.

Frank Miller: Those of us who wanted to test the boundaries of what a superhero comic book could do, unfortunately broke those boundaries and the results have not all been very good. We pushed against the old walls, and they fell-but nothing much has been built to replace them. And now the roof is leaking and the sewer's backing up.

Frank Miller: I will throw all my best efforts into it, my thoughts and political observations, but ultimately I want to create a narrative that keeps you turning the pages and leaves you with a sense that this thing has a reason for being there.

Frank Miller: The fundament of a superhero is the guy in tights saving innocent people from bad things. It's amazing how infrequently that seems to happen in superhero comics these days.