Joss Whedon: Doing

“Q: So, why do you write these strong female characters?
A: Because you’re still asking me that question.”

Joss Whedon

"American Rhetoric: Joss Whedon - Equality Now Address" (15 May 2006) http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/josswhedonequalitynow.htm

Question , Strong

“I think there's a lot of people out there who say we must not have horror in any form, we must not say scary things to children because it will make them evil and disturbed… That offends me deeply, because the world is a scary and horrifying place, and everyone's going to get old and die, if they're that lucky. To set children up to think that everything is sunshine and roses is doing them a great disservice.”

Joss Whedon

Said to Michael Silverberg of NPR; quote featured in the Buffy Monster Book (2000)
Context: I think there's a lot of people out there who say we must not have horror in any form, we must not say scary things to children because it will make them evil and disturbed... That offends me deeply, because the world is a scary and horrifying place, and everyone's going to get old and die, if they're that lucky. To set children up to think that everything is sunshine and roses is doing them a great disservice. Children need horror because there are things they don't understand. It helps them to codify it if it is mythologized, if it's put into the context of a story, whether the story has a happy ending or not. If it scares them and shows them a little bit of the dark side of the world that is there and always will be, it's helping them out when they have to face it as adults.

Children , People , World , Thinking

“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

Light

“If you can't do something smart, do something right.”

Joss Whedon

Source: Serenity

“The thing about changing the world… Once you do it, the world's all different.”

Joss Whedon

Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home

World , Change

“Everything I do is going to contain the message that men who are going to be comfortable with powerful women are going to be more powerful men”

Joss Whedon

Women , Men

“I mean, I knew I wasn't a nice person, but what did I do in my past life to deserve this? I must have hit a bus full of nuns while driving a stolen car on my way to selling drugs to schoolchildren!”

Joss Whedon

Life , Cars , Way , Past

“Do you love me?
What?
Do you?
I love you. I don't know if I trust you.
Maybe you shouldn't do either.
Maybe I'm the one who should decide!”

Joss Whedon

Love

“How do you know your Colossus is the genuine article in the first place?

I read his mind.

I matched his DNA.

I smelled him.

I also did that.”

Joss Whedon

Source: Astonishing X-Men, Volume 1: Gifted

Reading

“If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.”

Joss Whedon

Tim Minear, in Epiphany", episode 16 of season 2 of Angel; also mentioned in the DVD commentary for the Firefly episode, "Objects in Space".
Misattributed

“I believe we are the only sentient beings in the universe, and I believe that 500 years from now, we will still be the only sentient beings around. … Aliens are something everyone else is doing.”

Joss Whedon

As quoted in "Whedon creates space cowboys in 'Firefly'" in Post-Gazette (22 July 2002) http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/20020722owen0722fnp3.asp

Universe

“The network called up and said 'We piggybacked you on the deal for another show,' I'm like 'Okay, so what you're saying to my writers is that they weren't picked up when they thought they were and now that they are it was because of something that has nothing to do with them. Okay. Great. Stop calling.”

Joss Whedon

Underground Online, interview by Michael Patrick Sullivan
This is in reference to the WB network announcing that Angel had been confirmed for a full fifth season of 22 episodes, when Mutant Enemy Productions had already assumed that to be so.

“There is nothing more painful in the world than Aly when she makes her big eyes. She makes her big hurt eyes, there's nothing you can do. She just kills you.”

Joss Whedon

DVD commentary for Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode 2-14 "Innocence"

Pain , World , Hurt

“If I ever did a rom-com, it'd be about an orgy. I cannot do anything except ensemble-pieces. It's awful!”

Joss Whedon

Interview with Joss Whedon and Elizabeth Olsen about Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2duXsX6qtA