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" I grew up in a weird environment. My mother's head of the home video division, basically. She played a big role in the invention of DVD - she won an Emmy for it. Or rather, she's part of a group that won an Emmy for it. "

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" I started out as a novelist, and I think novels have gotten a little stiff, a little repetitive, and the energy in comics was much more appealing. "

Tom King

Started

Think

Energy

" Sometimes I understand how Bruce Wayne feels. When you take down a terrorist or something, there's always six guys to take their place. Everyone is Hydra. But you still have to do it. "

" I don't believe in writing for goals, or else I'd write essays. "

" It's funny, you know: my mother-in-law, who doesn't have an ounce of nerd in her, is just so excited by the fact that I write 'Batman' because she'll see an article about me in the 'Washington Post' or 'The Wall Street Journal' or something. And that means so much to me. "

Tom King

You

She

" I think sometimes you go through an experience, and you don't feel the impact, especially in a war experience, until way past it. "

" All stories are just stories of a character changing. "

" My first book is called 'Carry the Three.' It's definitely in a drawer, and it's terrible. I never sent it to anybody. My wife read it, but nobody else. "

" You can't tell a Batman story without the Joker, and you can't tell a Joker story without Batman. They're just the symbols of the best and worst of humanity. "

" The idea of doing a buffer, sexier Riddler - I like that. I think he's a reflection of Batman, and I think of him like a scary, evil Batman. Like Bruce Wayne without a conscience. "

" I'm a firm believer in putting your experiences in your writing, of bleeding into the page. "

" That's all the Joker is. It's Batman without love. The Riddler is the opposite of that. It's the detective in him. "

" Writing is weaponized empathy. It's putting yourself in someone else's head. It's finding what's in them that relates to you. "

" Literally, over a weekend, Friday to Monday, I went from a C.I.A. officer to changing diapers and putting the kid in a Bjorn and going to the playground and hanging out with all the nannies. I was the only dad - everyone kind of gave me strange looks because of our sexist society. "

Tom King

Friday

Society

" You throw sadness, you throw depression, you throw horror at Batman, he's like, 'Yeah, yawn, I've done that.' You throw happiness at him? That's something that riles him; that's something that he's not used to. "

" When I write, I see the pages in my head, not the words. "

" I grew up your classic nerd who was not good at throwing balls or kicking them. I was good at reading stories by myself. That was my specialty as a child. "

" My dad left when I was young. I didn't have a dad. I'm part of that divorced generation and didn't want to do that to my kids, so I took a year off and became a full-time dad, changed diapers and all that while my wife worked. "

" If you actually read the 'New Gods' tetralogy, this epic without an ending, it's like dipping your head into madness. You feel a little bit like the Joker for a little while. And I mean that in the best way possible. "

" I love continuity. I was a continuity nerd growing up. I loved buying a comic in the middle of something and loved digging for back issues or going forward and trying to figure it all out. "

" I wanted to write about the Trump era, but I didn't want to write, 'Fascism sucks' or 'Trump sucks.' That doesn't get you anywhere. "

" What eventually you find in comics is the only thing unique you can bring to a character who's been around for 80 years is yourself. "

" I have my dream job. If I was seven years old and you asked me what I'd want to be 30 years from now, I'd say exactly who I am. So, 'rare' and 'lucky' are the exact right words. It took a lot of hard work, and I took a weird route to get here, but man, am I grateful for it. "

Tom King

Grateful

Man

" That's what's great about the Batman universe. When you explore Gotham, when you explore the villains, all of them point to this one character. This iconic American symbol for how we deal with pain and loss and how we move forward after it. "

" I've said this before, but I don't like putting captions in my comic books. I feel, for me, they become a crutch, a way to ignore the essential fact that our medium is a visual medium, and the greatest pleasures to be derived from comics are how stories can be told with pictures. "

" I always felt like the 'outsider' kind of kid. "

" As ever, I caveat with saying that I don't write about the factual content of my C.I.A. experience. Ever. People who are working hard to save lots of lives depend on me to keep my mouth shut. "

" I've been the desperate writer before. I wrote a novel, and they paid me for it, and I've had those calls from my agent, and I'm like, 'Do you need me to ghost-write a vampire novel? What do you need? I'll do Transformers... tell me!' "

Tom King

Need

" I went to college in New York. I interned at Vertigo, and then I interned at Marvel working for Chris Claremont. Just to age myself, this was in 2000. "

" Batman gets close to the insanity of Gotham, to the craziness, to what drives that city mad, and not be driven mad himself - or, at least, most of the time he isn't. That's most like the mission of the C.I.A. We get into the heads of our enemies without becoming our enemy. "

" When I talk about the C.I.A. stuff, I feel guilt because I left. I really believed in that job, and my colleagues are still there. But I have kids now. "