The thing about a hero, is even when it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, he's going to keep trying to do right and make up for what's gone before, just because that's who he is.

- Joss Whedon

There are many films and TV shows I make where people find themselves in fantastical situations; as often as possible, their reactions to it are very normal.

- Joss Whedon

When you're making a film, you have an obligation to fill the frame with life.

- Joss Whedon

Who is to say who is the villain and who is the hero? Probably the dictionary.

- Joss Whedon

Horror movies don't exist unless you go and see them, and people always will.

- Joss Whedon

Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women.

- Joss Whedon

I never give up on anything, because you come back around, and suddenly the thing you thought you'd never do is relevant.

- Joss Whedon

I always was an early-morning or late-night writer. Early morning was my favorite; late night was because you had a deadline. And at four in the morning, you make up some of your most absurd jokes.

- Joss Whedon

You know, I always was an early morning or late night writer. Early morning was my favorite; late night was because you had a deadline. And at four in the morning you make up some of your most absurd jokes.

- Joss Whedon

What I do like is hiking. And that's what filmmaking is. It's a hike. It's challenging and exhausting, and you don't know what the terrain is going to be or necessarily even which direction you're going in... but it sure is beautiful.

- Joss Whedon

Always be yourself... unless you suck.

- Joss Whedon

TV's like whitewater rafting: Without rocks, there wouldn't be rapids, and it wouldn't be as much fun.

- Joss Whedon

I was not popular in school, and I was definitely not a ladies' man. And I had a very painful adolescence, because it was all very strange to me. It wasn't like I got beat up, but the humiliation and isolation, and the existential 'God, I exist, and nobody cares' of being a teenager were extremely pronounced for me.

- Joss Whedon

I'm a very hard-line, angry atheist. Yet I am fascinated by the concept of devotion.

- Joss Whedon

Absolutely eat dessert first. The thing that you want to do the most, do that.

- Joss Whedon

The way a musical can make us feel is unlike anything else, in song and particularly in dance. I think people fly through plate-glass windows when they get shot because movies don't have dance scenes any more. This is what we do instead.

- Joss Whedon

I love fantasy. I love horror. I love musicals. Whatever doesn't really happen in life is what I'm interested in. As a way of commenting on everything that does happen in life, because ultimately the only thing I'm really interested in is people.

- Joss Whedon

You know, the thing that I do to waste time is think of things I want to make. That's how my mind is employed.

- Joss Whedon

My dad would go to work every day and write in a room full of funny people. He enjoyed it. I know great writers who find the process agonising but to me, writing has always been sheer joy.

- Joss Whedon

I don't tend to write straight dramas where real life just impinges. But because I don't, when I do, it is very interesting to slap people in the face with just an absolute of life.

- Joss Whedon